OZANAM IN HIS CORRESPONDENCE

PRINTED AND BOUND BY JOHN ENGLISH & CO. WEXFORD :: IRELAND

OZANAM

IN HIS CORRESPONDENCE

BY

THE RIGHT REVEREND MONSIGNOR BAUNARD

TRANSLATED BY A MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF IRELAND

OF THE SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL

NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO

BENZIGER BROTHERS

PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE

DEDICATION.

"Oo Cum 5t6ipe "O6

-A^uf

te

DECLARATION.

I declare that, in attributing in this Life, the title of saint to persons whom the Church has not raised to the dignity of the altar, I only use it conformably to the Decrees of Urbain VIII, dated I3th March, 1625 and 5th June, 1631. /

I declare, moreover, that I submit this work and myself to the judgment of the Holy See, disavowing beforehand, publicly and sin cerely, everything that would not be in conformity with the teaching of the Holy Church, my Mother. /

I desire to live and die in obedience to Her. /

Obstat:

MICHAEL CRONIN,

Censor Theol. Deputat.

"poUst:

^ EDUARDUS,

Archiep. Dublinensit HibcrnicB Prim as

Dublin!, die quarta Julii, 1925.

IX

INDEX

Author's Preface ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... p. xv

CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS, 1813-29. pp. 1-12

Ancestors, Father. — Mother. — Benoit Ozanam. — The Jew, Samuel Ozanam. — The Christian Doctor. — The Child, — College first Communion.— Crisis of Doubt.— The Abbe Noirot.

CHAPTER II. FIRST LITERARY EFFORTS, 1830-31. pp. 13-25

A Lawyer's Clerk. — Faith vindicated. — A friend, Leonce Curnier,— July, 1830. — " The Bee." — Reflexions sur la doctrine de Saint Simon. — Letters from Lamartine and from Chateaubriand. — La Demonstration du Chnstianisme. — Orthodoxy.

CHAPTER III. PARIS.— CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTION. 1831-33. pp. 26-40

Isolation in Paris.— Dangers of a boarding-house.— The great Ampere. — At Chateaubriand's house. — Two philosophies. — Groups of young men, M. Bailly. — Conference of History. — Montalembert's salon. — Charity and Cholera — The Abbe Marduel.

CHAPTER IV. DEFENCE OF TRUTH, 1832-34. pp. 41-55

Lyons friends, Lallier, Lamache. — Protests at Sorbonne lectures. — Letter to M. Jouffroy. — The Abbe" Gerbet's Conferences. — Petition to the Archbishop of Paris.— Conferences in Notre Dame ? — Visit to Lacordaire. — Subscription to the Catholic University of Lou vain.

CHAPTER V. THE CONFERENCE OF HISTORY. pp. 66-66

The Open Conference.— Defence of the Church by Speech.— In the Press, La Tribune, La Revue contemporaine. — Saint Simonians. — L'Ami de la Religion, M. Picot. — Barren words. — Charitable action. — " Let us go to the Poor."

x INDEX

CHAPTER VI. THE CONFERENCE OF CHARITY. pp. 67-76

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul. — M. Bailly, President. — Ozanam, Founder.

. The beginning. — Sister Rosalie. — Ozanam with his poor. — Corpus Christi

at Nanterre. — Ampere and Ozanam. — Gustave de la Noue. — Expansion.

CHAPTER VII. ORIENTATION, 1834. pp. 77-90

First Italian trip. — Rome. — Law or Literature. — Literary vocation. — The struggle: " To walk between God and Death."—]. J. Ampere. — Conferences in Stanislaus College. — Self-sacrifice to Law.— Called to the Bar.— Return to Paris for the Degree of Doctor of Laws.

CHAPTER VIII. THE YOUNG SOUL OF THE APOSTLE. 1835. pp. 91-105

Auguste Le Taillandier. — Patron, St. Vincent de Paul.— Sub-division of the Conference.— Aim of the Society, through and for youth.— Salvation of souls.

Jesus Christ in the Poor. — "Devotion to Martyrdom." — Lacordaire at Notre

Dame. A Catholic Society of Fine Arts. — Bachelor of Arts.— Law Examina tion. — His mother ill.

CHAPTER IX.

LYONS AND PARIS, 1835-36. pp. 106-119

Trip to Lyons.— Lyons and Cholera.— Les deux chanceliets d'Angleterre- Paris, Ozanam and Lallier. — Rule of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.- Doctor of Laws. — Anguish as to his career. — Farewells at Paris to the Society. — Ampere's death.

CHAPTER X.

LYONS CONFERENCE, 1836. pp. 120-130

At Monceaux with Lamartine.— Jocelyn on the Index. — Lamartine on Ozanam. —First Lyons Conference.— Ozanam's Report.— Opposition to the Con ference.— Growth.— Centre for soldiers.—" To be saints to make saints. - Letters to Lallier, Secretary General. — Circular-letters. — Humility.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BAR, 1837. pp. 131-143

Ozanam's prejudice against abuses.— The defence of the poor.— Candidature for a Law Chair.— His father's death.— Embarrassments.— Works, Des Biens de I'Eglise against Michelet. — Scriptural controversy — Annals of the Propaga tion of the Faith. — The case of the Archbishop of Cologne.

INDEX xi

CHAPTER XII. DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF LITERATURE, 1839. pp. 144-158

Dante in the Disputation of the Blessed Sacrament. — The Divine Comedy : Philosophy and Poetry. — The action of the Poem, its moral. — Life of Dante : Beatrice. — The Poem of Expiation. — Its Symbolism. — Roman Orthodoxy. — Elaboration. — Proof — " One cannot be more eloquent than that." — His mother's death.

CHAPTER XIII. LAW OF COMMERCE.— HIS VOCATION 1839-40. pp. 159-174

The Cloister or the world. — Protestantism and Liberty. — Vocation for apostolate. — The Friar Preachers and Lacordaire. — Lacordaire in Lyons. — General Meetings of the Society. — Opening of the Course of the Law of Commerce. — Special higher instruction. — Candidature for a Chair of Literature. — Pro fession of Catholic belief. — Concursus for the Higher Degree in Foreign Literature. — First in the Competition.

CHAPTER XIV.

MARRIAGE, 1841. pp. 175-188

Voyage for research on the banks of the Rhine. — Young Belgium. — A virgin heart. — Ideal of a spouse. — His isolation. — The Interview. — Mmlle. Soulacroix. — Introduction, Engagement, Question of Residence. — Wedding. — Honeymoon.

CHAPTER XV. THE SORBONNE: ANCIENT GERMANY, 1842. pp. 189-202

Catholic awakening. — First lecture. — The Niebelungen. — Teutonism and Chris tianity. — " The Holy Roman Empire." — Public anti- religious spirit. — Rights and duties of a historian. — God at the end of all knowledge. — Barbarian Italy. — Preparation for the lecture. — The Professor in the Chair. — The escort of students. — A conquest for the Faith.

CHAPTER XVI. MASTER AND DISCIPLES, 1841-43. pp. 203-215

Professor at Stanislaus College. — Ozanam as Examiner ; his severity. — At the Catholic Circle. — -Easter Holy Communion in Notre Dame. — General Meeting of the Society. — Ozanam's grave advice. — Episcopal favour. — 'Devoirs litter air es des Chretiens. — -Religious polemics. — Approval of His Grace Arch bishop Affre. — Attacked by I'Univers.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE CHURCH AND THE UNIVERSITY. pp. 216-228

University monopoly. — The courses of Michelet, and Quinet. — Ozanam's refutations. — Correspondant : Ozanam and Foisset. — Montalembert's mani festo, Ozanam's name. — His rectitude between the two parties. — M. Fauriel's

xii INDEX

death. — Promotion, Ozanam gets the position without conditions. — Stanislaus* College, regrets and farewells. — Pere de Ravignan at a General Meeting of the Society. — Disturbance at M. Lenormant's lectures. — Defended by Ozanam.

CHAPTER XVIII.

HOME. WORK, AND CHARITY, 1841-46. pp. 229-238

The home. — Soulacroix junior and Ozanam. — Paternity. — Lallier, godfather. — Cross of the Legion of Honour. — The interior Christian : faith, poetry, happi ness, labour. — Resignation of M. Bailly. — M. Gossin, President.— Catholic Institute. — Serious illness. — Departure for Italy.

CHAPTER XIX.

MISSION TO ITALY, 1847. pp. 239-249

Florence. — Rome. — Pius IX., audience. — Catacombs. — Fraternal grief. — Fetes and ovations to Pius IX. — Umbria, Venice. — Ballanche's death. — Switzerland : at Echallens.

CHAPTER XX.

THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. pp. 250-262

Histoire des Girondins. — Pontifical Policy. — Rome's dangers and hopes. — " Let us go over to the Barbarians." — Ozanam misunderstood. — The 24th February. — Profession of faith. — Religious manifestations. — Political candida ture. — Social action. — " The Party of Confidence."

CHAPTER XXI. THE JUNE INSURRECTION 1848. pp. 263-275

L'Ere Nouvelle, (The New Era), Lacordaire. — His Grace Archbishop Affre. — Ozanam on Divorce. — Ozanam with the Archbishop. — The Archbishop at the barricades. — Death of M. Soulacroix. — Destitution in Paris. — Society of St. Vincent de Paul, its trials and its duties. — Cholera. — St. Vincent de Paul and Richelieu.

CHAPTER XXII. "THE NEW ERA," 1848-49. pp. 276-296

An address : To good people. — Destitution : Causes et remedies. — Socialism. — The Republic and the Catholic Party. — Echoes of Liberalism. — Lacordaire withdraws. — The split. — For Venice. — For Pius IX. — Statement of The New Era, its end. — Ozanam at Ferney. — The end of the Republic.

CHAPTER XXIII. BELIEF AND TOLERATION. pp. 297-312

Orthodoxy. — Christian toleration. — Ozanam and dissenters. — Ernest Havet. — Lacordaire ; " The large number of the elect." — The two schools,

INDEX xiii

honey and vinegar. — Outburst of I'Univers. — Complaint and justification of Ozanam. — His noble pardon. — The Liberalism of his correspondence ? — Ozanam and the Syllabus. — The Napoleonic Empire. — " Thy Kingdom

CHAPTER XXIV. FRANCISCAN POETS, Le Ve SIECLE. pp. 313-324

Francis of Assissi. — Blessed Jacopone de Todi. — General plan of Civilisation chretienne. — Le Ve Siecle. — Sorbonne course. — Conversion of the Franks. — The Lesson.—" Sow."

CHAPTER XXV. BRITTANY, ENGLAND.— PUBLICATION, 1850-51. pp. 325-339

Rest in Brittany. — M. de La Villemarque.— The publication of the V* Slide ; The Preface. — The volume of the Poetes franciscains ; the Fioretti. — History and Legend. — In England : the Crystal Palace and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. — Pauperism and Anglicanism. — Conferences at Dieppe and Sceaux.

CHAPTER XXVI. INTIMATE LIFE. pp. 340-356

The Family, the daughter's education. — Piety, Holy Scripture, Christian home. — Elevation of the soul : God's will. — Divine respect for the poor. — Vie de saint Eloi. — Council- General of the Society.— Friendships. — Lallier. — The painter, Janmot. — Falconnet. — Nourrisson. — Dufieux. — Cornudet. — Foisset. — Lacordaire. — To Ampere : a letter of an apostle and a brother.

CHAPTER XXVII. ILLNESS, THE PYRENEES, 1852. pp. 357-372

The last lecture. — " I shall die in your service." — To a friend in doubt: Faith. Ill ; to the South. — Eaux-Bonnes, Gavarnie, Betharam. — Two friends : Abbe Perreyve, Abbe Mermillod.— Biarritz. — Bayonne Conference. — The Penitents of St. Bernard. — A run to St. Sebastian. — Three days at Burgos; its Notre Dame. — Pelerinage an Pays du Cid. — Pilgrimage to Pouy ; The Society. — At Buglosse. — By the Corniche to Pisa.

CHAPTER XXVIII. IN ITALY ; WINTER AT PISA, 1852-53. pp. 373-387

The Society in Florence, the Grand Duchess. — To the members in Florence. — Pisa. — The masses of the people. — Historical works. — Elevation of the soul. — Tenderness at home. — Purgatory of sickness. — Sacrifices. — Consolation : the Psalms.— Le Li we des Malades.—His last Will.

xiv INDEX

CHAPTER XXIX. LEGHORN, LAST DAYS, MARSEILLES, 1853. pp. 388-404

Leghorn. — The Conference.— Last words. — Letter to a Jew. — Academic pro motion. — Poem. Sur I'tcueil de San Jacopo. — L'Antignano, his visit to Con ferences, Pontedera. — Sienna.— Report to the Council- General. — Last work.

Collapse.— Farewell to his friends in Lyons. — Two members of the Society, the brothers Bevilacqua. — The Mass on the Feast of the Assumption.— Farewell to L' Antignano. — The crossing.— Marseilles ; A holy death.

EPILOGUE.

THE LITERARY AND CHARITABLE LEGACY. pp. 405-417

Sympathy and hopes of heaven for the deceased. — The Dean of the Faculty of Literature, Leclerc. — De La Villemarque.— Brothers in the Society — Monta- lembert.— The Abbe Perreyve.— Rev»Pere de Villefort.— President Baudon — M. Cornudet.— Lallier.— M. Guizot.— The Bishops.— Pius IX to Madame

Ozanam.

His legacy.— Literary work.— Edition of his complete works.— Bordin Prize. — M. Villemain.— Charitable work.— Rev. Pere Monsabre.— Multiplica tion of Conferences.— Golden Jubilee of the Society.— The Encyclical of Leo XIII.— Society statistics.— Society Orthodoxy.— An urgent social necessity.

APPENDIX.

Two unpublished letters of Ozanam to his mother.— Like letter of Ozanam to M. Lucien Perret. — Five letters of Ozanam to his brother Charles.— Note on the number of the first members of the first Conference.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

The traditional Mass was celebrated in the crypt of the Carmelite Church, rue de Vaugirard, on the loth April, 1910, the second Sunday after Easter, the occasion being the Feast-day and the date of the annual general meeting of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris. The Council General of the Society and a large number of members were present. /

The historic crypt contains the body of Frederick Ozanam, which has lain there under a simple monument since 1853. -' The Abbe Guibert, a priest of St. Sulpice, Superior of the ancient ecclesiastical House of Carmelites, which is now the Seminary of the Catholic Institute, preached a sermon appropriate to the occasion and to the place. / He first did honour to the name of the first patron of the Society, St. Vincent de Paul. He then proceeded to refer to the second, whom the place itself brought to the minds of all. Frederick Ozanam became then, and continued to be, the subject of his address. /

The priest spoke of him not only " as a model to be imitated, and a patron to be honored, but already a protector to be invoked, if not in public, at least in the secret of one's heart."/ He honoured him as " the principal founder of the Society, a fact which has been ac credited to him already by tradition, the universal voice which is not-'v deceived."/ He expressed the general desire of Conferences for the day on which, with the sanction of the Church, it would be given to them to worship him solemnly in public. / Examining the condi- - tions required by the Church for such elevation, the venerable preacher gave it as his opinion that they were admirably fulfilled by the life and the doctrine and the good works of that just man ; by a life of piety and innocence, by a doctrine of propaganda of faith ; by good works of corporal and spiritual amelioration, which have together made him an incomparable apostle of truth and charity in the world./ The love of God was his principle, the salvation of souls his aim./

xvi FREDERICK OZANAM

The same address did not hesitate to describe the Society of St. Vincent de Paul as " an Association of piety no less than a Congregation of Charity."/

" Now," the preacher asks himself, " when, within the Church, a Christian Society has sent its roots deep down into souls, and spread afar its branches laden with fruit ; when it draws its sap from a pure and intense religious life, is one not right in concluding that that Society is of God, that the heart from which it sprang was filled with God, and that the brow of the founder is worthy to bear the aureola ? The vitality and the efficacy of his action are the guarantee and the consecration of his virtues./

" Were those Christian virtues practised by Ozanam in the heroic degree ? The Church will decide that. But it is for us, gentlemen, to bring his cause before Her. We may be sure that it will be examined with the liveliest sympathy."/

The sermon closed with two requests. One that the life of our Founder should be more widely studied and more deeply meditated on. The second, that a greater part of all future biographies should be devoted to the interior, Christian, apostolic features of that life ; in a word, to the " eminent virtues of that true saint."/

It is in answer to that wish, with which the Council General and the meeting associated themselves, that the present work was undertaken. /

Why was I, in my old age, selected as the author of this work ? It is not for me to say. I have only to apologise for demurring too long to insistent appeals. While recognising the great honour which was paid me, I looked at the task with dismay. I was in my eighty- third year. I had just published my last work, Le Vieillard. I had only just completed the payment of a great debt of admiration and gratitude in Les deux Frhes. f Was not that the close of my work ? Did I not feel that I had come to the end of my strength ? Was this eleventh hour of my life the time to undertake such a work ? Was I about to open a new furrow which I should, in all probability, never close ?/

Therefore I sought to be excused What was then the

incentive which induced me to give way, to submit my weary head, first with resignation and then with joy, to the yoke of obedience, which I now recognised to be sweet and the burden thereof light ? /

In the first place, I loved Ozanam from my early youth. Was not he, whose life I was about to write, in Pere Guibert's words, " The

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xvii

great Catholic of his age ?" In the second place, I loved the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which can do so much for the Church to-day, by its fidelity to the spirit and to the grace which God had deposited in that Vessel of election. / Again, I loved the young men of the schools, whom I served for sixty years, and of whom Ozanam was a perfect model. / Lastly, shall I admit it, the selfish thought of passing a year, and that perhaps my last, with such a soul, such a mind, such a heart, in continuous communion with him, enlightening my gloom, stimulat ing my tepidity, consoling my loneliness, detaching me from this earth, and even, giving me advance glimpses of heaven ! / . . . . That prospect won the day. Could I shut my door to that guest, to such a friend ? No, he shall be welcome. The book shall be written, and written with love. It shall be at least begun ; finished, if I can. But that is in God's hands. Great and good Ozanam, enter !

I entertain the same wish for those who will read this book, that they may live intimately and constantly with him. /

Many have written about Frederick Ozanam before me. I place in the forefront his brother, the missionary. He has, in his incomplete biography, given us a store-house of domestic particulars which no other could have furnished. / Next come the two illustrious friends, Lacordaire and Ampere, each of whom has woven a beautiful crown, with which to adorn Ozanam's brow; Lacordaire with eloquence, Ampere with literary charm, both with love./ Many other friends have written obituary notices or literary appreciations : M. de la Ville- marque, Dr. Dufresne of Geneva, chosen disciples in Stanislaus College or in the Sorbonne, M. Caro, the Abbe Perreyve, M. Heinrich, M. Maxime de Montrond, M. Urbain Legeay his former master, a member of the Society, the holy Comte de Lambel, his intimate friend Dufieux, etc., .f . .

. The important work of M. Charles Huit, Professor in the Catholic Institute of Paris, appeared later, published under the auspices of Cardinal Perraud. There is an original work on La Jeunesse d' Ozanam, written by M. Leonce Curnier, which was crowned by the Academy. There is also a biographical and critical review written by M. Bernard Faulquier, a distinguished member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, with a preface from the hand of Monsignor Baudrillart. /

I note particularly the Frederick Ozanam of Kathleen O'Meara, who was an Irishwoman, and in whose accounts I find with pleasure traces of conversation with Ozanam's widow. /

xviii FREDERICK OZANAM

A short biography comes from Canada. A moral study on Ozanam's correspondence comes to us from a Protestant source ! It is the work of a Protestant Pietist lady of Geneva, Madame Humbert, who was edified and inspired by the virtue and by the greatness of soul which she found in his correspondence. Then there are literary ap preciations, such as the excellent one by M. Poulin, £loge d'Ozanam, which was crowned in the Floral Fetes in Toulouse, etc. /

I desire to mention all such, or nearly all, because I am indebted to all, though in a different degree ; and because all are unanimous in venerating and admiring that outstanding superiority of virtue, thus anticipating in their hearts his religious worship. /

But I felt that those excellent productions, biographies, notices, articles, detached studies, while useful to consult, were yet only sketches, and that the complete history of Ozanam was yet to be written./ If, as the priest had said at his tomb, the exterior man, the man of science, the author, has left an illustrious name ; if even the man of good works has left a memory which has been blessed the world over ; on the other hand, the interior man, the moral and religious man, the man of God, has not yet been adequately presented to the public. /The time is then come to write this history, the history of his soul, — that great soul ! — and to show it in each and all the acts of a life which it inspired and animated. / We have that soul still living in his speech. Ozanam has left it immortal in his works and in his correspondence. If the interior life of the man is yet to be written, it has no longer to be sought for, it still exists in power and in matter There we shall find it./

We shall find the interior Ozanam firstly in his lectures. Ozanam's soul is not abstracted from, nor disinterested in the subject matter of his instruction./ He is there with all his faculties of judg ment, admiration and disapproval, of benediction and condemnation. He is to be seen in the beautiful moral deductions which he draws, in the instruction which he provides for the audience and the readers ; in his realistic treatment, in the practical application of his lectures to his age and his country, in the homage which he makes all times and places pay to the Eternal King ; sometimes too, in the melancholy in trospection on his life, death, affections, sufferings, which furnish the pathos of his works. /

But if the life and soul of Ozanam are to be seen in his written works, his correspondence is, if I may so express it, filled to over-

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xix

flowing with them./ His whole existence, his family life, his friend ships, his life of action, are there reconstituted in the natural sequence of the events, in their order of date, with every surrounding circum stance of time and place, in their true sense and colour. / Likewise, his whole soul is manifested there, showing its development in each phase of its existence. / First of his youth : noble aspirations, grandiose designs, the torture occasioned by a choice of life, the call, the ebb and flow of hope and despondency, the sacred intoxication of Science and Faith. /Then of his mature age : his struggles on behalf of purity, his pure love, his enthusiasm for Truth and Charity, his all-conquering zeal, his independence of conscience, his delicacy of heart, the cruel deception and false wounds which he had to suffer./ Lastly, the de cline, not of age, but of premature life : a tireless and sanctified activity, a crucifixion to his pen, to his professorial chair, which Lacordaire had indicated to him. Finally, the consummation, the sacrifice : supernatural suffering, the tranquil heroism of sublime sacrifice./ To bloom, to ripen, to die ; such would be the epigraph of this book, as it is the plan and the development of that crowded, elevated and brief span of life ! /

The greater part of that Correspondence has been published. Some other letters have been privately shown to me by her who has received the treasure as an inheritance and who guards them religiously as a father's relics.*/ She is to be thanked for that./ Some other letters, up to then un-edited, have fortunately been found. f / There is in all a collection of some two hundred letters, which are the whole basis of this work, the warp and woof of the piece. All my Ozanam is there and always there, not only his traces, but his voice, his speech, his very life ; his life in all its truth, his speech in all its frankness, his voice breathing its most beautiful accents, letters which are the most beautiful of his works because they resemble him most closely. It is he who is speaking and writing, not I, who have provided only the wire for this wreath of choice blooms. Nobody, least of all the writer, will lose by that./

What is then the figure which, partly hidden from our eyes, rises

* Madame Laurent Laporte Ozanam died on the 26th June, 1911, immediately after the publication of this Life, to which she had contributed greatly, and which brought her great joy. She died, alas ! before the Centenary celebration of her father, which would have been a very dear pleasure to her. /

t Other such letters, which have since come to light, are published in the Appendix (Translator's note) . /

xx FREDERICK OZANAM

over the horizon at this dark hour to light our way with its gentle radiance ? " Like St. Vincent de Paul, Ozanam was an apostle : an apostle of Truth, an apostle of Charity." Everything is comprised in those words, spoken in the crypt of the Carmelites. /

J "" Apostle of Truth, that is of Catholic Truth which he always under took to defend. At the age of seventeen Ozanam drew up his plan ; at eighteen he opened the attack against Saint Simonism ; at twenty he raised the standard in the Sorbonne against the anti-Catholicity of Jouffroy ; at twenty-one he waited on the Archbishop of Paris to appeal for modern instruction in Notre Dame ; at thirty he en throned Truth with eloquence in a professorial chair in the Sorbonne.* He devoted himself to the defence of Truth up to the last breath of his breaking body : "Our life belongs to you, gentlemen. As for me,

— if I die, it will be in your service." That was his farewell./

Apostle of Charity. At twenty years of age he inaugurated with a few students the first Conference of St. Vincent de Paul : " Let us go to the poor."/ From Paris, from Lyons, he extended the benefit to France, later to both hemispheres : " I wish," he said, " to enfold

^the whole world with a net-work of charity."/ Before closing his eyes for ever in this world he could count two thousand such centres of charity, of which the Lord has said: " I came to bring light into the world ; what can I desire but that it should shine everywhere ?"/ Less than a month before his death he dragged his broken frame from Leghorn to Sienna to make straight the path for a little band of students, his last creation. Having accomplished that, he embarked to see France and die. /

j^ He died at forty. He had given everything to God by a solemn act : " I come, Lord." He is to be seen during a long year, dragging himself, stumbling from one station to another of his Calvary./ As an ailing son will seek the comfort of his mother, he is to be seen by turns at the feet of Our Lady of Burgos, Our Lady of Betharam,

- Our Lady of Buglosse, Our Lady of Pisa, and finally resting at the feet of Our Lady de la Garde. / It was there that the Queen of Heaven awaited him, to raise him from his death-bed and to take him up beside Her into the Mansion of the Heavenly Father. / That was on

ff -*• * M. Guibert adds : " Such was his exactitude of conscience that, in all questions touching faith, the Church had no son more submissive to her directions. If he shared certain liberal ideas of his time, it was through the very nobility of his heart and through the very love that he bore to religion and to his brethren, not through any deviation whatever from the teaching of the Church, f

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xxi

the Feast of her Nativity, on the 8th September, 1853. / I do not —^ know anything grander or greater than that dolorous pilgrimage of a heart sustained by the spirit of a soul filled with Heaven which it was entering. There is no more divine picture in the history of the saints./-u

Let us not hastily call him by that great name. Let us write the life just as it was, let us show the man just as he existed, under the earthly conditions of our mortality, without any other interest than that of Truth. Ozanam would not have tolerated anything else.y Let us not celebrate his virtues, let us simply say what they were. Let us not praise his thoughts, let us unfold them. / Let us not pro claim Blessed that man of mercy, of peace, of meekness, who hungered -•' and thirsted for justice ; but let us recall his works of mercy, of clemency, of meekness, of justice and of peace. / Let us not salute him prematurely as a Confessor of Faith ; let us see how he confessed it before friends and enemies. / Let us not award him the martyr's crown, let us see how he suffered for the love of Jesus Christ and died in the burning love of the Heart of Him of Whom he said : " How could I fear Him ? I love Him so much."/

After that there remains for us silence and prayer ! " Let us not renounce for one moment our ambition in his regard. But let us *> cherish it by multiplying the Associations which he promoted, and by practising the virtues that distinguished him. / Then, in full con fidence, let us allow the Church to do its own work, in its wisdom and in its own good time. Did not the preacher in the crypt assure us, " that if the cause of the pious founder were taken to Rome, it would be examined with the liveliest sympathy." /

That is no longer in doubt after the many marks of favour which the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has received in later years from His Holiness Pius X. It is scarcely three years, the nth April, 1909, since a pilgrimage of the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul arrived in Rome at the same time as the Roman ceremonies of the Beatification of Joan of Arc were being celebrated. /The official organ - A* of the Vatican, L'Osservatore Romano, seized the opportunity to join Ozanam 's name in the celebrations under the heading : Dopo cento anni : Giovanna d'Arco, Frederico Ozanam. One hundred years after : Joan of Arc and Frederick Ozanam./ It continued : " It is not a mere fortuitous coincidence that links up the celebrations in honour of the Blessed Joan of Arc with those of the approaching Centenary celebra tion of the birth of Frederick Ozanam, one of the heroes and apostles

xxii FREDERICK OZANAM

of Charity in France. / An intimate bond unites the celebrations of those two glorious children of France, etc." / The Bulletin of the Society noted the comments of I'Osservatore, as follows : "It is the first time, we believe, that our venerated Founder has been placed side by side with a Blessed on the altars. Are we to see in that a fore taste of a higher and purer glory than that of earthly renown ?"/

On the i6th April, in the same year, the name of Ozanam was associated by the Sovereign Pontiff himself with that of St. Vincent de Paul in regard to an Association, which he regarded as the younger sister of the second religious family of the great Founder. / His Holiness spoke as follows :

" Vincent de Paul, who lives in the Congregation of the Fathers of the Mission, and in the incomparable Sisters of Charity, lives in our day in the admirable Association of Conferences, the inheritors of his faith, of his charity, and of his apostolic spirit. / It is a new generation, an unexpected and numerous posterity, which has carried everywhere the choice fruits of benediction. / The mustard-seed sown by Ozanam in 1833 is to-day a mighty tree. It extends its branches throughout the entire world and is the rallying centre for all the missions of the earth."/

Yet another address from the same august lips affirms the spiritual affinity of the two apostles of charity, and the union of their souls and their lives, derived one through the other " from the springs of the Saviour," as the Church expresses it. /

His Grace, Dr. Blenk, Archbishop of New Orleans, had just made at that time a report to His Holiness Pius X on the good works performed by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the Dioceses of Louisiana. Whereupon His Holiness said : " Yes, indeed, it is in that way that the spirit of St. Vincent de Paul, and of the great Founder Ozanam is manifested. It is indeed in that way, that the heart of the people will be won to God. "/When His Grace requested His Holiness to pray for the general extension of the Society in the New World, the Holy Father replied : " That is my constant prayer. I have no more ardent desire than to see that Society carry to the ends of the earth the spirit and the life of Ozanam, which is the life of that great apostle of Charity St. Vincent de Paul, which is itself the life of the Divine Saviour."* f

*On his return from Europe in October, Archbishop Blenk presided over an extraordinary general meeting of more than one thousand members, for the

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xxiii

Let us cherish those words. There is light from them ; is it the dawn ? I do not desire to see more by their light than the honour in which the person and the work of Ozanam are held in high place. I find encouragement in them for suitable steps to be taken, in full submission to the regulations and conditions which the Church wisely imposes on the most legitimate desires of her children. They are, in fine, a call to prayer until that day of common recollection, which is approaching and which will strengthen our confidence. /

The 23rd April, 1913, will see the Centenary of the Birth of Frederick Ozanam. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul proposes to celebrate the event very solemnly, to give a new impetus to his good works, and revivify the apostolic spirit in its members, by making the memory and the example of its Founder more widely known. /

Paris will, of course, be the centre of such celebrations. But the eyes of our members will be turned to Rome, as they bear their homage to the feet of Pius X, as formerly Ozanam bore it to the feet of Pius IX, to renew faith, to receive the word of command, to listen to the holy oracle, and to bring back hope and benediction./ I shall not be of the number of those pilgrims to Rome, perhaps not even a spectator of the earthly celebrations ; I shall be content at having been per mitted, if I may so express it, to intone the Vespers. But if the Master of Life deigns to extend mine to that day, I shall receive on bended knees the words of light and strength from the Vicar of Christ, which shall be carried forth to millions and millions of Christians./ If Ozanam 's name receives special religious prominence in expressions of gratitude and veneration, I shall draw an augury from that in favour of a still more solemn event. That will indeed be for my old age a final great joy, it will be equally the highest and most precious reward which this world can offer for this Book. /

Gruson, Villa Jeanne d'Arc. Christmas 1911.

celebration of the Golden Jubilee of their foundation in the St. Louis Cathedral. The Bishops of Natchez, Okahama, Natchitoches and Mobile were present. When the evening meeting had been opened with the Veni Creator, tne Arch bishop announced from the pulpit that he had been charged by the Holy Father with a very special message for them. He quoted the above statement of the Holy Father, word for word, and gave an account of his audience. (Bulletin, January 1910, p. 24). /

FREDERICK OZANAM

IN HIS CORRESPONDENCE.

CHAPTER I. HIS EARLY YEARS.

ANCESTORS. — FAMILY. — EDUCATION. — THE CRISIS OF DOUBT. THE ABBli NOIROT.

1813-29.

Frederick Ozanam was born on the 23rd day of April, 1813, in Milan, which was at that time a French city. His parents came of old French descent and were of the old faith. /

His father, Jean-Antonine-Frangois Ozanam, who was born at Chalamont, near Trevoux, was a man of character. In that he was the worthy son of Benedict Ozanam, one of the twelve castellans of Dombes, and of Elizabeth Baudin. The latter was a descendant of the family of La Condumine and of the ancient house of Saillans, whose first scion died in 1792, at the head of 20,000 men, fighting in the Jales camp for the Royalist cause. /

After an honours course in classics in the Oratorian College in Lyons, Jean-Antoine enlisted at the age of 20 in the Berchiny hussar regiment, in which he displayed conspicuous gallantry under General Bonaparte at the battles of Millesimo, Mondovi, Pavia, Lodi, Castiglione, Arcole and Rivoli. / He retired at the age of 25, severely wounded, with the rank of captain. He was identified with a successful diplomatic mission to General Souwaroff , with the capture of a Neapolitan General, Prince Cattolica, whom he took prisoner at Bologna, and with the

2 FREDERICK OZANAM

taking of a Uhlan Standard, which he presented to Bonaparte. He succeeded in retaining the esteem and confidence of that great General. (

The soldier was also a devoted and fearless son. He was, on one occasion, during the days of the Terror, on his way with his regiment from Bourg, his garrison town, to Vienne in Dauphiny./ He made a detour at the mart of Meximieux in order to pay a visit to his mother in the neighbouring town of Chalamont. To his great amaze ment he found her in a state of consternation. Her husband had just been denounced, arrested and imprisoned at Ambronay near Amberieu, whence he would most probably depart for the scaffold. / Jean- Antoine jumped into the saddle, took with him two hussars armed to the teeth, galloped to Bourg, where, as he knew, the Committee of Public Safety was sitting. He forced his way into the Committee Chamber, and pistol in hand, demanded an order for release, which he took away with him. Then he set off at full gallop to outdistance the gendarmes whom the Committee hurled in pursuit, as soon as it had recovered from its stupefaction. There was scarce time to re assure his mother as he dashed past to rejoin his regiment. Luckily his absence had not been noted. /

Young, rich, handsome, amiable, witty, gay, this promising officer resigned from the Army on the establishment of the Empire. He married Marie Nantas, the daughter of a prosperous merchant in Lyons. They established themselves in business in Paris, where they were succeeding admirably until he signed a bill for a bankrupt relative and brought about his own ruin. /It seemed that he would then have to resume the sword. Some former comrades-in-arms spoke on his behalf to the victor of Arcole, now Emperor of the French./ The rank of Captain in the Imperial Guard was offered to the former brilliant hussar officer. But as he was not a lover of the Empire he declined the offer, preferring loyalty to his convictions to that great honour and brilliant prospects. / He then determined to rely on his own efforts and set out for Milan. When he had settled there he sent for his young family. He occupied his time very fully in following a course of medicine, and in giving private lessons as a tutor. / He used to relate in after years how he trudged on foot every three months, from Milan to Pavia, for his examinations. / Two years sufficed to complete his course with honours and to become qualified as a Medical Doctor. He distinguished himself almost immediately by a learned work in Italian which brought his name to the notice of the scientists

PARENTS 3

of the day, Count Moscati, Locatelli, Scarpa, who all esteemed his work very highly./ In the year 1813 he is to be found heroically performing the duties of a visiting physician to the Milan Military Hospital, when that city was swept by an epidemic of typhus fever. / Two of his colleagues had died of the plague ; Ozanam, alone, remained to minister by the bedsides of the hundreds of patients. It was his field of battle. /Nor did the commander quit the post of danger until the dreaded enemy had beaten a retreat. For his services on that occasion he was decorated by Napoleon, King of Lombardy, with the Iron Crown. Heaven granted him a still greater reward. It was in that same year, 1813 that Antoine Frederick was born, the fifth child of a family of fourteen. /

The son wrote in later years of the father in the following terms :—

" While passing through camps, revolutions, and many forms of adversity, my father preserved an ardent faith, a noble character, a high regard for justice, a tireless charity towards the poor. He loved Science, Art, and Work. He inspired us with a taste for the beautiful and the sublime."/

Such, indeed, in a few words is the intellectual, moral, and religious inheritance which Ozanam received from his father. It is a great help forward on the path of virtue to be able to walk in the footsteps of those of our name who have shown us the way as torchbearers or pioneers. /

Not less exemplary were the light and leading which he received irom the life of his mother./

Born on the i8th July, 1781, Marie Nantas' recollections in child hood dated back to the horrors of the Siege of Lyons in 1793, when .•she and her sisters had lived in the cellars. She could remember her father, one of the leading silk-merchants of the city, appointed •Captain of his section, devoting his days and nights to the defence of the ramparts. When the city was taken she could remember her brother, Jean-Bap tiste, scarce 18 years of age, shot at Brotteaux, with the flower of the youth of Lyons. Her parents only escaped the scaffold by flight. They found a refuge for themselves and their family at Echallens, in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland, between the two beautiful lakes of Geneva and Neufchatel. Thither an old uncle, a former Prior of the Carthusians of Premol accompanied them. Marie could remember that it was there in a poor little church, in -which both Catholics and Protestants worshipped, that she had made

4 FREDERICK OZANAM

her first Holy Communion. With the restoration of peace, the family returned to Lyons to recover, not their property, but their rank. Monsieur Nantas was one of the deputation to offer in 1798 an official welcome to General Bonaparte, then on his way to take over at Toulon the command of the Egyptian expedition./

Reared in such a hard school, one fit to train a fearless woman, the wife of Jean-Antoine did not shrink from the trials of poverty nor from the manual labour which her husband's reverses and the necessities of a growing family entailed. The example of the brave man who, at the age of 36 years, triumphed over every difficulty in far-away Milan, to carve out a new career for his family, supported her. It was in 1815, when the Austrians entered Milan, that the patriotic Frenchman, not wishing to live himself nor to rear a family under a foreign domination, brought back his young family to Lyons. Even there the struggle for existence for a new and unknown doctor was hard ; still harder for the mother of a family of fourteen children eleven of whom died in tender years. /

But she did not indulge in idle tears like those who have no hope. At each death her streaming eyes were raised to Heaven. Frederick could write later as follows : " On how many occasions have I not seen my parents in tears ; when Heaven had left them but three children out of fourteen ! But how often, too, have not those three survivors, in adversity and in trial, counted on the assistance of those brothers and sisters whom they had among the angels ! Such are indeed also of the family, and are brought back to our minds in acts of unexpected assistance. Happy is the home that can count one half its members in Heaven, to help the rest along the narrow way which leads there !" /

The name of an admirable servant of the family, Guigui (Marie Cruziat) must here be associated with that of Madame Ozanam. She had entered the service of Frederick's grandparents when a child, her integrity was unassailable and her thrift fabulous. She was a woman of shrewd and sound judgment and of extraordinary loyalty and devotion, who insisted in hard times on adding her mite to the scanty income of her beloved masters. /

Better days did dawn at length. The Doctor became known through his contributions to medical journals and when an election was held for the much coveted position of Doctor to the Guild Hall, he secured first place. The Royal Academy of Science in Lyons did

ANCESTORS 5

honour to his works and admitted him to membership. From 1830 on, we find contributions from his pen appearing in the Revue des Deux-Mondes, and we find his name held in esteem by the whole medical profession. /

It was not indeed for the first time that the name of Ozanam had been heard of in the select circles of the learned societies of Lyons. The Academy counted among its scientific celebrities of the I7th century one Jacques Ozanam who arrived in that city at the age of 20 in the year 1660. He taught mathematics with such renown that ten years later d'Aguesseau summoned him to Paris to co-operate in the work of the Academy of Science, and to take the chair of Higher Mathematics in the University. That mathematical work he pursued by means of studies and lectures. Fontenelle delivered the panegyric of the " celebrated mathematician." This great- grand-uncle of Frederick was pre-eminently a Christian savant. " I desire," he wrote, " that physical Science shall be Christian as I teach it, and that -, it shall lead to God." He was more Christian in his domestic than in his public life. He was simple in character, unselfish, a father of twelve children, who were as religious as he. Inviolably attached to his religion, he boldly answered the Jansenists, and later the Encyclo pedists of the time :" It is for the Doctors of the Sorbonne to debate, for the Pope to decide, and for mathematicians to go to Heaven by the perpendicular."/

Indeed, if tradition and family records may be trusted, it is necessary to seek much further back for the source of that legacy of religion. It is related that at the beginning of the 7th century, the Archbishop of Vienne, St. Didier, flying from the persecution of Queen Brunhild, found a refuge in the house of a rich Jew of Dombes named Samuel Hosannam in the town of Boulignieux, the over- lord of which he was. St. Didier took advantage of the opportunity to preach the Gospel to him. He converted Hosannam and his large family. The Bishop was martyred soon after, but the seal of baptism remained engraven on the long line of his neophyte, their ancestor in the faith./

To that patrimony of service and merit Doctor Ozanam brought a great charity towards the poor. Lyons can still recall that " the Doctor combined the soundest medical advice with the most wonderful devotion. At least a third of his clients were free. With him the profession of medicine was a true work of charity. He did not even confine himself to giving his medical services free to the poor whom he

6 FREDERICK OZANAM.

visited, he also shared his heart with them, seeking to console them in their misfortunes. His was more than compassion, his was true religion, for he saw in the poor the Divine Person. He has been seen on his knees at the bedside of the sick joining with the invalid in asking for the clemency of the Divine Healer." It was reserved for him, as will be seen later, to die in the very exercise of that Christian ministry./

The practice of medicine under such unselfish conditions did not enrich the Doctor. It secured for him, however, a moderate com petency, which his son declared to be proper, free, and most con formable to a life of dignity and virtue. " I wish to thank God," he wrote, " for having been born in middle class society, neither rich nor poor, which accustoms one to the idea of privation without the complete deprivation of all reasonable enjoyment : wherein one cannot be enslaved by the gratification of every desire, but wherein also one is not continually distracted by the grinding necessities of poverty. Then follows this humble opinion of himself joined to an act of thanks giving : " God alone knows what dangers would have lurked for me, with the natural instability of my character, in the luxury of riches or the dejection of poverty./

Frederick was delicate in youth. At the age of six he was almost carried off by typhoid fever. " My parents," he recalls, " did not leave my bedside, day or night, for a fortnight. Everyone believed that I won through only by a miracle." The miracle was attributed to St. Francis Regis, patron of Vivarais. Devotion to that saint was then very ardent and a chapel had been dedicated to him in the Church of St. Polycarpe in Lyons./

In a letter dated 5th January, 1830, written to a college friend, M. Materne, Ozanam draws this severe portrait of himself : " I was never worse than I was at the age of eight. I had become headstrong, passionate and disobedient. If I were punished, I revolted ; I wrote letters of complaint to my mother ; I was frightfully lazy. Every imaginable trick came into my head, notwithstanding the fact that a good father, an excellent mother, and a gentle sister were conducting my education."

As a companion, and at the same time a contrast to that portrait, we have the following from the hand of his elder brother, the Abbe Alphonse Ozanam, his biographer : " Frederick was, it is true, a quick tempered child, head- strong in his desires, extremely sensitive and impressionable. But he was tender to little children, compassionate

EDUCATION 7

with every form of suffering, of an angelic purity which shrank from the most venial fault, an impossible subject for evil, an enthusiastic devotee of good." Whereof he gives examples. /

Frederick was early brought into contact with the poor clients of his parents. Madame Ozanam had presided for the best part of her life over an Association of working women called " The Watchers," whose duty it was to minister in turn, by the bedside of the sick poor. In later years, husband and wife, now growing old, bound themselves mutually never to mount higher than the fourth storey of a tenement in the course of their arduous charitable mission. But only a short time after that solemn pact and covenant was made, they caught one another flagrante delicto on the threshold of a garret under the roof. It was, one day, to cost the brave doctor his life. Frederick had the example of twenty years of such devoted charity before his eyes.

His Christian education was mainly the work of his excellent and intelligent mother. He could say of her before God :" It is at her knees that I learned to fear You, O Lord ! and from her looks to love You." Schooled in sacrifice, she was equal to all the demands of family life as well as of society. The moral influence of her sweet sway made her " the best obeyed and the most beloved of mothers," and her cultured intelligence elevated her above the average lady of her position. She spoke and wrote well, could draw nicely, had good taste in literature, trying her hand at little occasional verses, neatly turned and better declaimed. No family feast was complete without a joyful song from that delightful mother.

Frederick was desirous that in recounting the work of his education, the name of his sister, Eliza, the eldest of the family, should be associa ted with that of his mother. He wrote eighteen years later to a friend in the following feeling terms : " I had a dearly beloved sister who co operated with my mother in my education, whose instruction was so gentle, so well arranged, so well suited to my childish intelligence, that it afforded me genuine pleasure. That explains why it was possible to say that as a child I was gentle and tractable ; it has been attributed to my physical delicacy, but the moral influence of my sister is another and a more compelling cause. I was seven years old when that good sister died at the age of nineteen. Oh ! How I was stricken with grief !"

Almost at the close of his, alas ! too brief career, Ozanam recalled, during one of his lectures at the Sorbonne and in a voice already broken by suffering, the transfigured images of his mother and sister :

8 FREDERICK OZANAM

" Gentlemen, however vast this world may appear to be, it is yet too narrow for us, for our desires and for our hopes, especially since after a brief while it will have but six feet of clay to offer us. It is too confined for our memories of the past, especially for those who had a mother who loved the poor and loved us, who spent herself that we might be men of good-will : and for those who had a sister who left this earth before she knew any other love than the love of God. Do we not feel the need for a better world in which to place them ? Do we not believe that they are aiding us from on high when a happy inspiration occurs to us ? When we recall those dear faces do we not imbue them with some new beauty, until we behold them perfect and immortal, thus adding for ourselves another chapter to the history of the saints ?"

Frederick at the age of nine, after a preparation by his father, entered the fifth class in the Royal College of Lyons, which was then directed by a priest. " There," he himself states, " I gradually became better. The spirit of emulation conquered my laziness. I liked my masters and studied hard. My success led me on so that I began to get proud. But I had much improved since I entered. I then fell ill and had to go to the country for a month. In the fourth class I did not do so well, but pulled up again in the third. This was the year of my first Holy Communion."

Ozanam saluted that event : " O day of days ! May my tongue cleave to my palate if ever I forget thee ! The improvement in my disposition was plain to be seen. I had become modest, gentle and tractable ; but I could still be proud and passionate."

The College lectures of a celebrated missionary during the Lent of 1826 seem to have made a deep impression on him at the age of thirteen. His notes on the sermons contain the following sentence which is for him the one that matters : " Young men, it is in your training here to be good Christians that you will be trained at the same time to be good citizens, and to learn to fill with honour the careers in which you will be called upon to serve your God and your country." Such was, in his opinion, the sum total of duty. The missionary priest was none other than the future Cardinal Donnet, Archbishop of Bordeaux.

The young student astonished his masters. The beautiful as well as the good was enthroned in his soul and emitted rays of poetry and eloquence not to be expected at that tender age. In his thirteenth

THE HORROR OF DOUBT 9

year he composed pieces in French, frequently in Latin, in prose and verse in every metre, which his professors showed to one another and to their pupils as little short of marvellous. The subject matter consisted of national or sacred historical episodes ; occasionally of contemporary events, as the embarcation of the French in the War for the independence of Greece. But mostly he treated of the Divine Mysteries and of the praises of the Blessed Virgin. Occasionally, too, domestic scenes, taken from life and treated with charming sincerity and grace appeared from his pen. Before his fifteenth year he was able to fill a little volume with his poetic compositions, which he offered on New Year's Day to his parents with a double dedication, in Latin for his father and in French for his mother ; nor would it be easy to say in which of the two languages he speaks with greater delicacy and tenderness.*

Yet it is in the midst of this serene life of study and piety, in his fifteenth year, that Ozanam was to find the clear sky of his faith troubled with clouds, and his heart shaken with the terror of doubt. Up to that time he had believed as a child, but as a thoughtful child ; he was now to pay for the precocity and the restless activity of his intellectual life. He himself took the students of the schools into his confidence when dedicating to them his first lectures at the Sorbonne on Christian Civilisation in the Filth Century. His Preface dated Good Friday, 1851, two years before his death, contains the following : " In the midst of an age of scepticism, God gave me the grace to be born in the true faith. As a child I listened at the feet of a Christian father and a saintly mother. I had as my earliest teacher an intelligent sister, as pious as the angels whom she has gone to join. Later, the muffled din of an unbelieving world reached me. I experienced all the horror of doubt, which by day gnaws at the soul without ceasing, and by night hovers over our pillows that grow wet with idle tears. Uncertainty as to eternity left me no rest. In despair I grasped at sacred dogma, only to find it crumbling in my hands. Then it was that the teaching of a priest, who was also a philosopher, came to my rescue.

*A small collection of these Juvenilia was published later in a Biographical Notice in 1854, written by one of the masters in Lyons, on his most brilliant pupil. M. Legeay was then Honorary Professor of the Faculty in Grenoble. He had collected them as promise of a brilliant future for the young student. Now there only remained for him to place them as a wreath on his grave. Will not the cultivation of Latin as a solid foundation for a French author appear an anachronism to the present generation ?

io FREDERICK OZANAM

He dispelled the clouds and illumined the darkness of my thoughts. From then I believed with faith grounded on the rock. Touched by such a grace I promised God to consecrate my days to the service of truth. That restored peace to my soul."

A private letter written in January, 1830, to his college friend, Materne, at the close of this crisis, exposes in more detail the interior struggle, at the memory of which he still shuddered : " My dear friend," he writes, " I must enter with some detail into a painful period in my life, which began in Rhetoric class and ended last year. After constantly listening to unbelievers and to expressions of unbelief, I commenced to ask myself why I believed. I began to entertain doubt, and yet I wished to believe. I rejected the promptings of doubt. I read books in which belief was established ; yet none fully satisfied me. For a month or two I believed this or that piece of reasoning : some new difficulty presented itself and I doubted again. Oh ! how I suffered ! for I wished to be religious. My faith was not solidly grounded, yet I preferred Faith without Reason to Doubt. All that tortured me. I took to philosophy. The Theory of Certitude quite upset me. I thought for a moment that I should doubt my very existence."

We have here the picture of the entire man, spirit, heart, and will engaged in that struggle. The spirit is tried with doubt, the heart protests, the will resists. That is the greatest of human sufferings ; it is also the great testing- time sent us by God, which brings with it the dazzling vision of love. Ozanam referred to that struggle in a later letter in the following forcible terms :" Shaken by doubt, I grasped the columns of the temple with all my might, even were it to crush me in its fall."

But God had seen his tears and came to the assistance of His child. The spirit grew clear ; faith, beloved and desired, triumphed ; tempta tion (for the crisis was that and nothing else) was beaten back. The martyr, in his very hour of martyrdom, was loyal to God. God would not forget him.

Ozanam turned to God. A friend relates that " In the darkest hour of trial, which had become for him actual physical pain, the young student appealed to the mercy of God for light and peace. He threw himself on his knees before the Most Blessed Sacrament, and there in tears and in all humility, he promised Our Lord that, if He would deign to make the lamp of truth shine in his sight, he would consecrate

THE ABB£ NOIROT ii

his life to its defence." He arose consoled. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, he was to find the Ananias who would enlighten and prepare the disciple.

" The priest- philosopher, whose teaching rescued him," as he him self expressed it, was the celebrated Abbe Noirot, who for 20 years professed philosophy in the College of Lyons. He left an indelible mark on all the brilliant young men of the period. His method — which cannot be judged by his written work, for he wrote nothing — was founded on Descartes rather than Socrates. He exaggerated doubt in order to pave the way in the mind for the return of true thinking. Whatever his method may have been, its results were splendid. Christianity, which was the apex of his system, shone in that school of thought with a dazzling radiance of truth and beauty. " The influence which that true master exercised over young Ozanam," wrote J. J. Ampere, " decided altogether the direction of his thoughts." The master admired and esteemed the young man, the youngest of his 130 students in the course of philosophy. At the close of his life he spoke of him in the following terms : "He was a chosen soul. Nature had dowered him, in a wonderful degree, with graces of mind and heart. Affectionate, sympathetic, ardent, devoted, modest, at once lively and serious, hating no one, despising falsehood, never was there a more popular student among his fellows. In the words of one of them, they formed in his regard a circle of love and respect." His also describes him as studying with enthusiasm far into the night. Thus, young as he was, he won his way to the head of his class, which he retained to the end.

Monsieur Cousin did not hesitate to name Abbe Noirot " the first Professor of Philosophy in France," saying, " other Professors have students : the Abbe Noirot creates disciples." Ozanam was his chosen disciple. Outside lecture hours the master liked to have him for a companion in his walks through the lonely and rocky paths which surround — or which then surrounded — Lyons on all sides, and " which make the city so dear to minds of a melancholy and contemplative turn." It was usually on the South side of the city, in the Straits at La Quarantaine that they walked, and thrashed out such questions as the reconciliation of Science and Faith, over which the Abbe Noirot raised the illuminating torch of Revelation. There, too, are to be perceived the first faint outlines of those large historical scenes of Christianity, of which his mind now at peace was already conceiving

I2 FREDERICK OZANAM

the first splendid ideas. His convictions had been shaken by a little cheap philosophy of earth ; they were now restored in the true science of Heaven. He expressed himself later as follows to two of his friends : " For some time past I have felt the need of some solid ground, wherein I could take root and resist the torrent of doubt. This day, my friends, my soul is rilled with joy and consolation. At one with faith, my reason has found again that Catholicism, which was taught me by the lips of an excellent mother, and which was so dear to me in my youth, Catholicism in all its grandeur, in all its beauty."

His faith emerged stronger and happier from the struggle ; it be came, also, more sympathetic with the failings of others. " How often," relates his elder brother, "has not our dear brother confided to us the terrible anguish which tortured him at that time. Ah ! he would add, " I am sometimes charged with excessive gentleness towards unbelievers. When one has passed, as I have, through the crucible of doubt, it would, indeed, be cruelty and ingratitude to be harsh to those to whom God has not yet vouchsafed to give the priceless gift of faith.' " Thus had God moulded and prepared him to be, one day an enlightened and authoritative guide for the young men of his time. The crisis had been for him, at once a lesson, a trial and an apprentice ship.

Such was his infancy, and such his early youth. At the age < sixteen Frederick Ozanam left College first of first. Now the bloom of that early youth is about to open, that period of his life so holy, so industrious, so fruitful of good works, so unlike the youth of others that one can say " Ozanam had no youth."

At the age of sixteen this youth was already a man. It is the first fruits of a man's mind that we shall see in a defence of Christianity extraordinary for his years. All is hurried in this rare life, as if Heaven, which was to make it brief, was eager, even then, to make it full.

CHAPTER II.

LITERARY ATTEMPTS.

A LAWYER'S CLERK.— PROFESSION OF HIS BELIEF. — The Bee. — SAINT SIMONISM IN LYONS — Reflexions sur la doctrine de Saint Simon — Programme of the Demonstration du Christianisme.

1830-31.

Dr. Ozanam had settled views about the future of his son. In his family diary in 1829, the following lines are to be found : " I desire to make Frederick a Barrister, or preferably, a member of the Magistracy or a Judge in the Royal Court of Justice. He has refined, pure and noble sentiments : he will make an upright and enlightened judge. I venture to hope that he will be our consolation in our old age. After college, where he is at this moment finishing his philosophy, he will study the practice of the law with a lawyer ; thence he will go to read law at Paris or Dijon."

This preconceived notion of a legal profession for his son, instead of a literary life which attracted Ozanam, was to be the source of eight years' suffering, which weighed heavily on the young man.

The filial son gave way to the desire of his father. The next year,. 1830, the young bachelor is to be found as an apprentice in the cham bers of one of the principal attorneys of Lyons, a M. Coulet, transcribing briefs, noting or engrossing deeds. But neither his heart nor his mind was in his work. Since finishing his philosophy, his thoughts were engrossed by a sublime ideal.

The Doctor well understood that it was necessary to find some occupation to fill up the tireless intellectual energy of his son. He engaged for him at the same time a German teacher, with whom the young man made rapid strides in that language. It was a valuable instrument which a far-seeing Providence placed in the hands of the future Professor of Foreign Literature as well as Historian of the Civilisation of the Germans and the Franks. Lessons in drawing were added. That was his mother's wish who, herself, handled the brush

14 FREDERICK OZANAM

with refinement. It would also be a pleasant interlude in the thankless task of petty clerking. As a matter of fact, it was the first infusion of that aesthetic culture, which was to show itself later in discriminat ing critiques on art and on the Christian artists of the Middle Ages.

The environment was good for neither study nor art. The ly-year- old Christian was to have the unpleasant task of making his faith and its practice respected by others.

The chambers of M. Coulet had on its staff some young blackguards, who indulged in indecent literature and who frequented immoral haunts. These did not hesitate to brag of their carouses before the new comer. Ozanam blushed at first ; then, losing patience and filled with indignation, he boldly broke in upon their conversation, scorned their ill-timed jests, exposed their ignorance, made them ashamed of their subjects of conversation and silenced them ; he, the youngest of the lot ! " Frederick," his brother recalls, " related to us with animation the details of that first skirmish and victory. It won for him the respect and esteem of the sorry youths who, but the previous day, thought him a noodle and a child."

He had a similar experience at his drawing course. M. Leonce Curnier, the author of an excellent work on Ozanam s Youth, gives the following account, which I abridge : " It was at the end of 1830. We were at drawing class, sitting beside one another, surrounded by dis solute young men. It pained us to have to listen to them ; but, overwhelmed by numbers, we maintained silence looking from one to another. One day, however, matters came to such a pass that we both cried out in protest. Ozanam stood up. I seem now to see that countenance and hear that voice, of which I had hitherto only known the modesty and gentleness. He grew animated, became in dignant, commanded and imposed silence. In a firm but restrained tone he proclaimed his Catholic Faith, without, at the same time, littering one word that could hurt the feelings of those misguided young men. These were silenced." .... " In re-seating himself," adds the witness of this scene, " the future Professor of the Sorbonne grasped the hand of the simple industrial apprentice. That hand, my young and noble friend never withdrew."

Their friendship lasted for life. In his recollections of Ozanam s Youth, dedicated to his sons, Leonce Curnier wrote : " My daily con tact with Frederick Ozanam constituted the whole charm of my stay in Lyons. We often had delightful walks together on the charming

MORAL INFLUENCE 15

banks of the Saone, the beauty of which threw him into poetical ecstasy. A picturesque site, a landscape with an infinite horizon, a river with a graceful sinuous course would ever entrance him. The fields and the woods, the verdure and the flowers held for him ineffable delight, which evoked expressions of thanks and homage to the Creator. More than once, during our trips in the suburbs of Lyons, I have heard such expressions burst forth from the deeply religious heart of my friend. On each occasion, as if hanging on his lips, I felt drawn upward by him on those mystic flights, and my soul endeavoured to soar with his."

The same friend continues : " With us both the isle of Barb e, that enchanting oasis of verdure, so dear to the inhabitants of Lyons, was a favourite spot. Ozanam would point out to me with veneration the remains of an old Abbey of the yth century, or he would make me climb with him the steep rocks, from the summit of which, it is said, Charlemagne beheld his army file past, in that heroic age of Faith which was to live again in the writings of my young companion."

" Notre Dame de Fourviere held for him a charm other than the splendid panorama which' unfolded itself from the mountain. It was for him a place of prayer. He had a great devotion to the Mother of God, whose modest shrine bore on its walls many evidences of miracles obtained through her intercession. Ozanam, who knew the history of this holy place intimately, called up before my eyes the notable visitors of former times : Thomas a Beckett, Innocent IV., Louis XI, Anne of Austria, Louis XIII, and, in our days, Pius VII, on his return from the coronation of Napoleon."

" The whole soul, mind and heart, benefitted by such conversations," continues the friend from Nimes. " When God in His infinite mercy, gave me Ozanam for a friend, I was young, left to myself, far from home, in a great city where many dangers surrounded me. At the first breath of that general scepticism which was characteristic of the time, I felt the faith which I had had at the knees of my mother totter, and the only force which I could oppose to the seduction of the passions weaken. Ozanam crossed my path to arrest me at the edge of the precipice. I afterwards walked with a firm and steady step in the path traced out for me by his example. ... It was the destiny of Frederick Ozanam to preserve, or to win back from the demon of unbelief many young men of his own time. I am perhaps the first who was thus saved from ruin."

16 FREDERICK OZANAM

When his professional course was finished, M. Leonce Curnier re turned to Nimes, his native city, of which he became one of the most distinguished citizens. He lived in the charm of those memories, and under the benign influence of that example, as we shall see from their later correspondence.

We have already shared Frederick's confidence with one of his college friends, M. Materne, afterwards Professor in the University, and re nowned for his scholarly work on Grecian Literature. Now, in June 1830, Ozanam entertains his friend with admiration for the religion which he has regained, and with the great happiness which he ex periences in belief. But in this the young Christian has some fault to find with himself, in that he is not as Christian as he ought to be and as he would wish to be. " I bring more conviction than fervour to the practice of my religion, and this causes me much suffering. I wish to be a worthy son of the Church. I do indeed perform most regularly my religious exercises, but Confession is for me a sore trial. This springs from my pride, from the embarrassment which I experience ; . . and, above all, from the laziness which prevents me from correcting myself."

It was on the 8th June, 1830 that he wrote this. The Revolution broke out a few days later. The correspondence was resumed on this new topic. Ozanam was indignant at the impious acts committed during those violent days. "A dissolute Press, trampling on the Cross, Government acts of retaliation widening the breach between the new regime and the Catholic Church." Yet, it is through the Church alone that he expected a lasting peace for Society to return ! About politics he is silent, until the tree of liberty be known by its fruits. This very young man knows how to bide his time : " While the young acclaim the glorious Revolution, I endeavour to make myself old ; I watch and wait, and at the end of 10 years I shall say what I think Mean time, my dear friend, let us join in being good Christians. I am de lighted to think that in this tempestuous crossing, we shall be a source of strength to one another, to this end, that we shall neither fail nor fall. Such a friendship must draw down the blessing of God. The day will come when, near the end of our careers, we shall exchange mutual congratulations on having entered on it hand in hand/'

There was much talk of war in those days of European unrest. " I am told," wrote Ozanam on the I4th August, "that one of these fine mornings I may find myself, like my father, on another bridge of

PRESS ARTICLES 17

Arcole or Lodi, or on the road to Vienna, or even to London, with my knapsack on my back and my sword in my hand ! Well be it so ! Come what will, I shall none the less pursue my studies. Is it not good for a soldier to be able to speak German and Italian ? Above all, ought not a military man be armed with faith grounded on the rock, by a thorough religious instruction ?"

Ozanam could have cited the example of another soldier, of whom he wrote five months before his death, : " When he left the HussarS, my father had read the voluminous Bible of Don Calmet from end to end, and he knew Latin as even we Professors no longer do."

Even while studying hard, Frederick learned to write for the public. Peres Noirot and Legeay, his masters, had founded in Lyons a little Review, The Bee, open to past students of the College. Ozanam con tributed some brilliant articles. In addition to actual events and to trivialities in prose and verse, he treated of philosophy and history. He shared these subjects with another past student of the same school, Hippolyte Fortoul of Digne, a future Professor of the Faculty in Toulouse and a future Minister of Education and of Public Worship at the commencement of the Second Empire.

At this moment "Saint Simonism" invaded Lyons. Triumphant in Paris, accredited by the genius of some of its masters as well as of its students, backed by a leading paper like The Globe, popularised in Lyons by the Precurseur and the Organisateur , presented to the mob as the sublime revelation of future religion, the doctrine of Saint Simonism expected and awaited its final enthronement by the July Revolution. In Lyons, however, the person and the preachings of the Parisian emissaries, the strangeness of their bizarre costume, the extravagance of their promises of reform, had awakened in the people curiosity rather than sympathy. On the other hand, the prestige of their liberal theories of equality, the attraction of their promises of moral emancipation, the dawn of a golden age, which was to witness the return to the primitive Laws of Humanity, were not without exercising a most seductive influence, especially upon the mind of the educated youth. In addition to which, were there not even, — startling to relate, — truly religious minds for whom Saint Simonism represented a new and a better Christianity ? Which title it indeed assumed.

It is truly astonishing to learn that a young man, then 17 or 18 years old, should have the hardihood to spring forward to attack this

i8 FREDERICK OZANAM

infatuation and seduction. His zeal for truth, his indignation at falsehood and evil, the sight of the danger to his brothers, the honour of God and of His Church, impelled him to write. His first effort consisted of two articles in the Precurseur refuting the doctrine.

The young writer offered as an excuse for his temerity, the sincerity of his convictions. He claimed the indulgence of his elders, whose place was, however, more properly, in the forefront of the attack :

" Deeply imbued with the great truths of Christianity, which contain for me consolation and hope, I find myself forced to express what my soul feels. I know that my voice is feeble and that my spirit is weak. It is not from a young man of 18 years of age that a masterpiece is to be expected. If, then, I have failed in parts, if I have made slips, let them be imputed, not to the cause I plead, but to my youth and to my inexperience. If, on the other hand, I seem to have in any way worthily upheld the cause in this first skirmish, deduce from that what the elders could accomplish for that same principle, on behalf of which their children fear not to enter the lists."

The Precurseur, which inserted the articles, promised to answer them, and did nothing. The Globe, which had joined in the discussion, was likewise silent. But the articles had attracted much attention in Paris as well as in Lyons. Ozanam's friends pressed him to publish them, developed and completed, in pamphlet form. That meant a second and much enlarged work, the fruit of more study, so that the subject matter travelled beyond the title. It was a complete examination, which ran to several chapters, of the doctrine of Saint Simonism in its two aspects, historical and critical, organic and dogmatic. I quote the conclusion, which is clear and decisive, from a singularly virile mind : —

" The doctrine of Saint Simonism was represented to us as founded upon the principle of human perfection, as resting upon an actual historical system established in harmony with the needs of humanity. It was announced as true in dogma, remote and holy in its origin, fruitful and beneficent in its effects. But history proved it false, conscience condemns it, common sense rejects it. Its primitive revela tion is a fable, its novelty an illusion, its application immoral. Self- contradictory, it would be disastrous as well as impossible in its final development, it would impede human nature on its journey to perfec tion and civilisation."

This appeared as a work of 100 pages in the spring of 1831, under the title of Reflections on the Doctrine of St. Simon. It was at once

LAMARTINE AND CHATEAUBRIAND 19

acclaimed, at least as a promise of still better work. " I have re ceived," he wrote, " a very flattering letter from M. de Lamartine, and a very favourable review from the Avenir" (Lamennais' paper). Lamartine wrote as follows : "Magon, August 1831. — I have just received and read with pleasure your work, which you have done me the honour to send me. When I consider your age, I am astonished and filled with admiration for your genius. Please accept my best thanks. I am proud to think, that a thought of mine, merely expressed, should have inspired you to write such a beautiful critique. Believe rather that the thought was not mine but yours ; mine has been but the spark which fired your soul."

" Your first effort guarantees one more combatant in the crusade of moral and religious philosophy against gross and material reaction. I, too, look forward to victory. We shall, perhaps, not see it, but the voice of conscience, that infallible prophet in the heart of a just man, promises it definitely for our children. Let us believe in that promise and let us live in the future."

M. de Chateaubriand takes a higher ground with the doctrines of Saint Simon, which he disdains, and with Saint Simon himself, whom he despises. He writes on the 2nd August from Geneva to a friend : " I have glanced over the little work of M. Ozanam. I had already read something of it in the Precurseur. The work is excellently con ceived and the closing passage is arresting. I am only sorry that the author should have squandered his time and his talent in refuting what was not worthy of his attention. We all know Saint Simon. He is, to say the least, a madman. Surely an extraordinary Christ ! Please convey my best thanks to M. Ozanam."

It must not be assumed that that first work of his i8th year was altogether free from the youthful exuberance for which he claimed indulgence. The tree may burst forth early into leaf and flower ; but the fruit needs time for maturity. Some of the phraseology is unduly rhetorical. Yet the man of letters and the scholar peeps out here and there. Jean Jacques Ampere notices that : "I find in that work the germ of qualities which developed late in Ozanam : a keen, though still immature, taste for knowledge, drawn from widely different sources : enthusiasm, loftiness of thought, great moderation in dealing with persons ; above all, settled convictions, and a sincere and courag eous sense of duty, which drove this young David alone to combat,

20 FREDERICK OZANAM

armed with a sling and five polished stones taken from the bed of the stream."

It is to young men, those young men to whom his works were to be devoted to the end, that Ozanam dedicated these first fruits of his pen. " Let them not refuse to hear the voice of a comrade, of a brother : Young men, the moral regeneration of our ancient land of France will be your own special work. You have felt the emptiness of material pleasures, you have felt the hunger for truth crying out within you ; you have gone for light and comfort to the barren philo sophy of modern apostles. You have not found food for your souls there. The religion of your forefathers appears before you to-day with full hands ; do not turn away, for it is generous. It also, like you, is young. It does not grow old with the world. Ever renewing itself, it keeps pace with progress, and it alone can lead to perfection."

But are the first feelings of vain-glory noticeable in the splendid reception which awaited the young author ? It is but the beginning of temptation : he is conscious of it, and he rejects it. On the iQth April, 1831, he confesses to his friend, Materne, who had over whelmed him with praise, that he is persecuted by a violent desire for publicity which tends to destroy his best efforts. "Yet, though I know that this glory is empty, it does not prevent me from seeking it ... My dear friend, speaking in terms of philosophy and religion, the only rule by which to regulate our acts is the law of love : love of God and of our neighbour . . . . Oh ! my dear friend, let this command of love be our law. Trampling under foot all vain glory, our hearts will be consumed with love for God, for men, and for true happiness. Then we shall be excellent Catholics, excellent Frenchmen ; we shall be happy."

The son of M. Ampere, who saw in that essay the germ of Ozanam's talent, saw in it also the preface to his complete work of apologetics, and wrote later : "Ozanam opposed to this anti-Christian doctrine of modernity, the Gospel and antiquity, seeking with a hand, still youthful, but already firm, to follow link by link the chain of human tradition. It was the preface to the book at which he was to labour even to his last day." Ozanam, himself, had some similar feeling when writing to his dear relative, Ernest Falconnet : " The reason why I like this little work is, that in it I have planted the seed of what is to occupy my life."

We have here, then, a first effort of what was to be his life work :

A LIFE WORK 21

a work not only literary but holy and religious ; a work of faith and of science, a work of apostleship, carried out with the single aim of winning souls from the sceptic spirit of the time. That work was to be as he conceived it La Demonstration de la Religion Catholique par Vantiquite 'et I'universalitedes croissances et des traditions du genre humain. That perspective exalts him, and he who, but yesterday had " grasped the columns of the temple even were it to crush him in its fall," is now able to write to the same friend as follows : — " To-day I find the same columns grounded on science, crowned with wisdom, and glory, and beauty. I find them again and embrace them with enthusiasm and love. I dwell near them. I shall point them out as a beacon of deliverance for those who are drifting on the sea of life."

Some of his fellow pupils in Lyons had preceded Ozanam to the schools of Paris. One named Hippolyte Fortoul, has been already mentioned. He was two years Frederick's senior. Happening to come to live in the great city immediately after the July Revolution, finding himself surrounded by a circle of young men, restless, turbulent, thirsting for novelty, drunken with liberty, blinded by illusion, at the mercy of every current of thought, and of every wave of political passion, Fortoul laid before Ozanam the formidable question of the present duty, and of the future of Society.

The reply was a long letter of ten pages, on the I5th January 1831, surely the most astonishing letter that has ever been written by an iS-year-old student. What one first remarks is the detachment of mind and heart from the tumult of current politics, and then the calm and serene contemplation, which was preparing him silently and ser iously for a higher life. This life was to be devoted to the service of eternal truth, to a great work at once moral, social, and religious, in which he hoped for the co-operation of his friends.

"My dear comrades, at the moment of greatest moral and material unrest, my decision is taken, my life's plan is mapped out, and as a friend, I ought to acquaint you with it. In the first place, tired of politics, wearied with systems of all kinds, watching the charade being played all round me and patiently waiting until the key-word be uttered, I have resolved to confine myself to my own sphere, to work out my own development, apart and detached from society, to study seriously in order that I may take my part in it later with more advantage to it and to myself. Such is the plan which I have formed, and which the Abbe Noirot has encouraged me to pursue. He assures me that I

22 FREDERICK OZANAM

shall easily find many studious young men ready and willing to co operate. At once I thought of you, my good friends Let

us then be stirring, and while the storm is overthrowing many of those in high places, let us develop in obscurity and in silence, to be full men when the period of transition shall have passed and we shall be needed."

His scheme was to rebuild society on a religious basis, which would in turn be supported on a larger historical foundation. This religious reconstruction would necessitate seeking and finding the earliest conceptions of religious truth in the primitive traditions and sacred writings of every people. The preliminary work would consist in the study of Oriental languages, Hebrew, Sanscrit, Egyptian, " a round dozen languages," as he said, so as to be able to consult at first hand original documents. In addition it was to comprise a knowledge of geology and astronomy in order to be able to discuss the cosmogony of peoples, and to fathom the histories of races and beliefs.

What would it not be necessary to know ? One smiles at finding Ozanam " groping in tombs, exhuming myths, exploring the traditions of every age from the savages of Cook to the Indians of Wishnow and to the Scandanavians of Odin." That youth surely has no fears !

Ozanam offers some apology for the grandiose character of his voca tion : " I am amazed at my own daring ; but what can one do ? When an idea has taken possession of one for the last two years and grows and grows until it occupies the whole mind, how can one set limits to it ? When a voice cries and cries and ever cries : Do this, I wish it ; how can silence be imposed on it ?"

Ozanam had then heard, even before the age of 18, voices from Heaven, from God, calling him to his vocation. It was the work of God and of God's Church, in which the apostle was urging his comrades to co-operate. "Co-ordinating our efforts with those of others we shall create a new organisation. . . Then one may see Catholicism leading the age with every hope of a better future. My dear friends, I feel moved in addressing you, for the work is grand. It is true it is gigantic ; but I am young. I have every hope that the time will come, when, having nourished, fortified, and developed my ideal, I shall be able to express it worthily."

Six days later, on the 2ist January, in a second letter similarly addressed, it is the urgent needs of the time and its solemn nature that move him : " How great is the scene of action to which we are

TRUE GLORY 23

called ! How beautiful it is for a young man to enter on his career in such a solemn hour ! So far am I from being discouraged by the course of events, that I am glad to have been born at a time when, by dint of some real hard work, it will be given to me perhaps to do some good."

The last lines are these speaking of his esteemed master : " What a great friend was the Abbe Noirot ! He has my profound gratitude for ever ! For you, comrade in arms, my friendship is ever-enduring and you shall never be forgotten." It was a regular enlistment.

His last letter from Lyons, dated 4th September 1831, addressed to his cousin, Ernest Falconnet, breathes the same spirit. The young builder proceeds to lay out the plan of his future edifice which is to be a temple. One side will face the past : "What was the primitive religion of humanity?" Another will face the future: "What will be the religious future of this same humanity ? " He continues : " by that time neither death nor old age shall have arrested our progress, the figure of Christianity will emerge in all its splendour." He then salutes Christ, the Eternal King of all time.

The glory of that work was to be for God alone. Here the wise and saintly youth shows his true Christian humility. His friend Materne, having spoken of other glory, he replied : " No, my dear friend. We mast not make glory an end ; we are to receive it but as encourage ment. True glory consists in recognition by posterity. But the just man places his hopes still higher. He awaits his reward and his glory from the hands of an infallible and incorruptible Judge, the Giver of all good gifts, to Whom he appeals from the ingratitude of men."

We have just heard the future Sorbonne Professor express his hope for a great work of science and faith, in which, indeed, Ozanam was to be first, a worker, and subsequently, the master. A short time after wards the future founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul was not less explicit as to the work of charity, which was to precede the former and to surpass it.

The two works were to have difficult beginnings. No doubt, his encyclopaedic scheme of study was somewhat far-fetched. The idea itself, the main idea that dwarfed all others, was to meet discourage ment in his own immediate domestic circle. "We were frightened," relates his brother, " at the dangers of the profound and difficult subject matter of the study which he was commencing. The thesis of progress through Christianity, did this not seem to challenge the

24 FREDERICK OZANAM

immutability of our dogma ? We therefore spoke often to him in our evening walks. He answered us with the approbation and the en couragement of the Abbe Noirot, without whose imprimatur he published nothing." The brother adds these lines, which should be noted : " Frederick never printed any important work concerning religion, without first submitting it to the severe criticism of a learned and conscientious theologian. This docility to the Church was for him a matter of scruple. He would have abandoned his dearest opinions unhesitatingly, and torn to pieces his most eloquent writings, rather than that they should contain any propostion, even dangerous or suspect, not to say erroneous. He marched protected by the shield of orthodoxy. That was his rule during his whole life."

His domestic circle was on good ground in arguing against the hopeless immensity of his plan of study. "It appeared to us to be too vast for the strength and life of one man. The spirit would exhaust all its energy in endless research, before it could possibly bear fruit."

That was true. But, gaming wisdom and experience with time, the ardent 1 8-year-old conscript, the Defender of Christianity, would learn to circumscribe, where necessary, the illimitable field of studies which his flaming eyes swept with a glance. Instead of the ancient Orient and the cradle of the human race, it is the barbarism of North ern Europe, won over and subdued by the Gospel, that would yield to him the secret of the origin of Christian civilisation. "But if," as wrote J. J. Ampere, " the student was forced to limit the extent of his study, the master idea ever remained the same, to demonstrate and glorify religion from history. Thus, at 18 years of age, the student of yesterday was already marching on the road to the great goal to wards which the renowned Professor was, 20 years later, to take the last steps. Thus he was able to write, at the head of his first lecture in the Sorbonne : " Life is advancing, we must take advantage of the little youth that remains. It is full time to commence writing and to keep my 1 8-year-old promises to God."

Such were the lofty ideals that preoccupied Frederick Ozanam as he followed the enforced avocation of a junior clerk in the chambers of M. Coulet, and during those eternal interviews with the chief clerk, from which he derived neither profit nor pleasure. Between times, his brother's biography depicts a young man of modest appearance coming and going from his father's house in the Rue Pisay, which was then standing, walking abstractedly and apparently absorbed by one

HIS EARLY YOUTH 25

thought, which made him insensible to all around him. At times he rapidly turned over the pages of a volume which he devoured, hastening his step, brushing against people and things in his path ; then, with touching confusion, humbly apologising and excusing himself on the ground for his weak sight His sight was, as a matter of fact, very short. For him, time was not silver, it was golden.

Such was the virile religious, intellectual and moral preparation of his early youth, which heralded the worker, fit for his great work, as it raised him well above the level of the youth of the world ; above their frivolity and voluptuousness ; above the ephemeral dust and the filthy mire. His conscience had been formed in purity and his heart in piety and charity. He was thus prepared for those first combats and those first conquests into which we shall follow him.

26 FREDERICK OZANAM

CHAPTER III.

ISOLATION. — AMPERE AS HOST. — CHATEAUBRIAND. — MONTALEMBERT.— M. BAILLY— CONFERENCE OF HISTORY.— A HOLY SCIENTIST.— A

SAINTLY PRIEST.

1831-33.

Ozanam had entered on his nineteenth year when his father decided that the time had come to send him to the Faculty of Law in Paris. There was not, at that time, such a Faculty in Lyons. It was towards the close of 1831 when the terror inspired by the July Revolution had begun to die down. Frederick had given such solid proofs of principle and virtue that every thing pointed to his safe return from that greatly dreaded, but none the less necessary, trial.

Frederick obeyed cheerfully. Paris was for him the city of studies, but especially of historical research. There he would find masters, books and also comrades whom he would be able to associate in his work.

The parting did not take place without pangs as he recalled after wards. He was leaving for the first time that home whose sweet ness and charm he had commemorated in some New Year verses which now came back to his mind :

Adieu, vous qui fuyez d'une fuite infinie, Premiers ans de bonheur, premiers ans de ma vie ; Vous emporterez tout ; tout, jusqu 'a la douleur ; Mais vous n'emporterez pas la memoire du coeur.*

* Farewell, you who are fled for ever, My first years of happiness, my first of life ; You sweep all in your train, even grief : But you do not deaden the memory of the heart.

LONELINESS 27

He prayed to God for his parents, for success, and above all, for the honour of the career upon which he was about to enter :

Donnez a leur enfant la force et la lumiere, Donnez-lui de fournir une noble carriere, Et d'y gagner ce prix que je puisse, a mon tour, Leur offrir, pour payer un peu de tant d'amour.*

During the latter days of October or the early days of November, 1831, Ozanam was many leagues from Lyons, " buried and lost," as he sadly explains to his mother. When leaving he had forced himself to appear cheerful, but since the 7th November his super ficial gaiety had disappeared. At this time his lot was one of utter loneliness. His was the bitterness of dear memories changed into regrets. His also the fear of the unknown and of himself, flung without guide into the capital of egoism, into the whirlpool of passion and of human error. He is frightened, he suffers physical pain from very terror, he has no one to love. That is the critical hour : to whom could he confide his troubles ? " Who bothers about me ? My young acquaintances are too far away from my lodgings to see them often. To confide in I have but you, mother .... and God. But those two are legion."

The Church of St. Genevieve close by opened its doors to him : but it had been recently disestablished by Royal Decree : " It is now the Pantheon, a pagan temple in a city of Christians. It is a tomb. But what is a tomb without a crucifix, a burial without the hope of future consolation ?" But as a set-off to that in St. fitienne du Mont, his parish Church, he glories in the stateliness of the religious liturgy in the magnificence of the chant, and of the organ. Even as he writes he is in ecstasies : " I have never felt anything quite like it."

The success of a campaign is often decided in the first skirmish. The young man became aware of the danger on the instant, and re cognised immediately that he had fallen into an ambush.

Madame Ozanam had requested an old friend of the family to find a quiet, reliable boarding-house for her son in Paris. The friend had made a mistake in his choice, which the young lodger was not slow to discover. The company there was not good. A letter to his mother

* Grant to their child strength and light, Grant him to carve out an honourable career, To win some prize that I, in my turn, May offer them something for their great love.

28 FREDERICK OZANAM

dated 7th December contains the following disedifying account. " At the table are old and young ladies, forward, noisy, frivolous, vulgar, even gross. The young men are still worse ; loose conversa tions about indecent representations and Parisian scandals. Barrack- room talk repeated word for word." After supper giddy groups are formed at the card-tables ; shouts and vacant laughter penetrate to his room. " I have been pressed," he said, " to join in those amuse ments ; you can readily understand how I refused. Yet these people are neither Christians nor Turks. I am the only one who keeps the fasts, which has made me the butt for many a gibe. It is very an noying to me to find myself in such society." Every feeling in Ozanam was wounded, his delicacy, his self-respect, his modesty, his religious sentiment. He asked for advice and instructions.

Madame Ozanam could scarce have received that letter when Providence, who is our Mother also, forestalling her, made the following splendid response. On the I2th December Frederick gave his father a description of a visit which he had paid to a very illustrious fellow- townsman, M. Ampere. Some little time before, the young man had been introduced to the great scientist at the house of M. Perisse, a relative of M. Ampere. He had been invited to call on M. Ampere, when he should come to Paris for his law course, and he did not forget to do so. The reception was quite fatherly. He was naturally asked about Paris, about his lodgings and his environment. At first with hesitancy, then, won by cordiality, Frederick confided to him, not without some con fusion, his present troubles ; Ampere listened in silence, moved by the timidity and candour of the young man. Then, without a word, he led him to the next room and opened the door. It was a very bright room, looking out on the garden. " This is my son's room, who is, and will be for some time, in Germany. What do you think of it ?" Then he added quite simply, " Would it suit you ?" As Ozanam, embarrassed and confused, did not seem to understand, he continued : " Come and take possession of it. I offer you board and lodging here on the same terms as you are paying at present. Your tastes and sentiments are like my own, and I shall be very glad to have you to talk to. You will make the acquaintance of my son, who has read deeply in German literature, and you can avail yourself of his library. You observe the fasts, so do we. My sister, daughter and son dine with me. We shall form a pleasant company. What do you think of it ?"

ANDRE MARIE AMPERE 29

The young man did not well know what answer to make, not yet feeling certain that such an offer could be intended for him. He expressed timidly his appreciation of the honour and the happiness which had been conferred on him, adding prudently, that he would refer the offer to his parents to whom he was writing.

In the following letter the whole arrangement is referred to as completed. Frederick informed his father that for the previous two days he had been the guest of the great Ampere, 19 Rue des Fosses-St. Victor, between the Polytechnic and the Jardin du Roi. He described his moving, gave a sketch of his room, as also an account of the daily routine of the household, in which he had henceforward his place as one of the family.

Andre Marie Ampere was at that time 56 years of age. The savant had been a member of the Academy of Science since 1814, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Polytechnic, of Physics at the College of France, etc., and became later Inspector General of the University. He had already made the remarkable discoveries which induced Arago to write : " In the future the laws of Ampere will be spoken of in the same way as the laws of Kepler have been in the past." The Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, and Cambridge, the Academies of Berlin, Stockholm, Brussels and Geneva, had inscribed his name on their lists of honorary members. His was the greatest scientific name of his country and of his time. " He knows by instinct and intuition," wrote Ozanam, " the discoveries which crown his name with such glory came to him in a flash."

But what the young man liked and admired in him more than his genius was his goodness. Domestic trials had softened his heart and illumined his faith. He lived with his sister and his dear daughter, Albine, who was a prey to sorrow. Jean- Jacques, his son, his hope and his pride, was busily engaged in traversing the world in search of knowledge. Frederick was to fill a vacant place in that saddened home. " M. Ampere is constantly showing me marks of extreme kindness," he wrote to his mother. " The rules of etiquette which you taught me, are unfortunately rendered useless by his consideration. There is no use whatever in my protesting, I must be served first, or he gets angry. His conversation is, at times, humourous, but always instructive. I have learned much since I came here."

Ampere made him free of all the sources of instruction at his disposal. He obtained entrance for him into the Academy of Science, of which

30 FREDERICK OZANAM

he was one of the leaders, and into the Mazarin library, to which he himself introduced and recommended Ozanam. " The kindness and graciousness of that great man," wrote Ozanam, when recalling those early days " were shown to all, but especially to young men. We know many to whom he showed the kindness and solicitude of a father. In truth, those who know only the intelligence of this man, know only the poorer part. If he thought much, he loved still more."

But above Ampere's kindness, Ozanam thanked and adored the Supreme God, of Whom he wrote piously : " God is infinitely kind in sweetening my exile by granting me such society. He does all things well. He saw how I should suffer from home-sickness. He saw that, in my weakness, I stood in need of much consolation to sustain me to the end. He has given it to me."

Consoled, but not cured, the young man vainly asks in his letter : " What student's life can be happier than mine ? . . . . Yet I feel ill at ease in an immense solitude. When separated from those I love, I feel something of a child who must needs live at home with father and mother, some indescribable feeling of delicacy which withers and pines away in the atmosphere of the metropolis."

The " something of a child," the charming reflex of a soul which had remained chaste and tender was, thanks be to God, to abide with Ozanam for ever. At one time he writes to his father : " You wish to know what I miss most. — You, father and mother and brothers and sisters, that is what I miss and what I ardently desire to see. How good it will be to meet you all again in eight months' time." Again when writing to his mother he refers to the family fetes in which alas ! he is not there to take part, the Feasts of St. Nicholas, Xmas Eve, New Year's Day, Epiphany, the glad feasts of the Church and of the home, in which the young Christian joins the name of God : " Christmas is coming. We shall pray for one another, mother. God will hear us both. He will give us strength and courage. We shall see His Kingdom. Whatever the future may contain for us, we shall walk with firm step to our eternal destiny."

By contrast, mighty Paris is for him a corpse, to which he is chained. " Its cold congeals my blood, its corruption paralyses my faculties. Paris is for me a modern Babylon, where, a captive, I weep at the memory of Sion. Sion, my native city, holding those whom I love, with its homely good nature and its abundant charity, Sion, whose altars are erect and where faith is supreme."

HIS MOTHER'S INFLUENCE 31

The thought of mother was more than a cause of sweet regret for him ; she was even from afar off, a shield and a buckler. In lines written a few months before his death he wrote of her as follows : " Our mother ruled by trust, by honour, and by a sense of duty. How could I ever dare to read a forbidden page even though bound by nothing but my word ? During my stay in Paris she never lost sight of me, she knew everything that I was doing and I never even suspected it. I looked upon myself as free and discovered that I was all the more securely bound. It is thus that noble sentiments are inspired, that wings are given to the soul, which learns to soar proudly after the good, whereas if cribbed, cabined and confined by an irritating sur veillance and by a degrading servility, it becomes only too anxious to shake itself free of such shackles."

It was the thought of his mother, ever present to his mind, which suggested his reply to M. Chateaubriand on the occasion of a memor able visit. Pere Lacordaire relates the incident somewhat as follows :

What the great Ampere was in the world of Science, Chateaubriand was in the world of letters. Ozanam desired to hear him, but had a mild dread of meeting him. A letter of introduction from a Canon of Lyons, the Abbe Bonnevie, gave him the necessary courage to knock at the modest dwelling of him whom Charles X. at Prague called 41 one of the great powers of this world." It was New Year's Day, 1832, the hour, noon. M. de Chateaubriand had just returned from Mass. He received the young student with every mark of kindness. After some enquiries as to his plans, tastes, and studies, he asked him if he intended frequenting theatres ? Pere Lacordaire relates that Ozanam hesitated between the truth on one hand, and on the other the fear of appearing childish in the eyes of his distinguished com panion. He remained silent for an appreciable time. M. de Chateau briand, waited with attention regarding him the while, as if attaching great weight to his opinion. Truth triumphed. He admitted that his mother had made him promise not to set foot in a theatre. There upon the author of the Genie du Christianisme shook Ozanam warmly by the hand, saying " I implore you to follow your mother's advice. You will get nothing from the theatre, you may on the contrary lose much there."

Pere Lacordaire adds that Chateaubriand's remark burnt itself into Ozanam 's mind. When some comrades, less scrupulous than he, pressed him to accompany them to the theatre, he declined firmly

32 FREDERICK OZANAM

with the words : " M. de Chateaubriand told me that it was not good to go." He did go, for the first time, at the age of 27 years, in 1840, to see Polyeucte. It made a poor impression on him. He felt, as others have felt, whose taste is sure and whose imagination is lively, that nothing can equal the representation of the great masters which the mind can reproduce for itself in the silent and solitary study.

Even while hearing those solemn words of warning, Ozanam was learning from the theatre of life, " which," he wrote, " is beginning to show itself to me in all the enormity of its vices, in the tumult of its passions, in the blasphemy of its impiety. We, children of good parents, were living in trust and confidence, our souls ready to accept every statement as honourable, every appearance as true. Here we find ourselves condemned to the painful task of learning distrust and suspicion."

He found a refuge in two things, " the pursuit of knowledge and Catholicity, they are my only consolation, but they are indeed beauti ful." We take the liberty of adding, friendship.

The year of Ozanam's arrival in Paris, 1831-2, witnessed a mighty upheaval of all the elements of intellectual life, religious, political, social and literary. Men did indeed believe that one of those turning points in the history of the world had been reached, when the human race leaves its beaten tracks to soar into new heavens and discover new systems. Two systems of Philosophy were standing face to face ; the Rationalistic School with ramifications into every branch of human learning ; the Traditional School, so called because Reason demands from Tradition the source of its deductions. In the ranks of the latter were to be found Chateaubriand, Lamennais, Baron d' Eckstein, de Bonald ; in Germany, Schlegel, Stolberg, Goerres, etc. It is in the latter school that Ozanam sees the dawn of hope for Catholic restoration, and as such he salutes it. " It is extraordinary how well read everyone here is," candidly writes the young guest in the Ampere household. He often met there M. Ballanche, another Lyons man, with whose views he was not quite at one, but whose wisdom, justice and Catholicity he admired. Thus in his courageous work, Vision d' Hebal, written on the day after the sacrilegious looting of St. Germain 1' Auxerrois, face to face with Saint Simonism prophesy ing the approaching end of the ancient dogma, and indeed already making preparations for its interment, Ballanche had not hesitated to proclaim his Roman Catholic faith : " Everything is to be found in

BALLANCHE AND LAMENNAIS 33

Catholicity, and it has said the last word .... The Eternal City knows that another Kingdom is promised and the Roman Pontiff will declare the tradition of which it is the depository."

Ozanam attached himself to him as to a dear master. We read in a letter of that period, " M. Ballanche received me very kindly. In the course of our conversation he said " Religion embraces of necessity theology, physiology, and cosmogony." Is not that exactly what we said to one another one day ? Is it not another way of saying what St. Paul said when he declared that all knowledge is contained in the knowledge of Jesus crucified ?"

Lamennais was yet another intellectual giant, though his pre eminence was much debated later. Ozanam saw little of him. His letters mention him twice only, and then without comment. On the 7th December Ozanam wrote : " I saw M. de Lamennais on the eve of his departure for Rome and had a long conversation with him." On what subject ? He does not say. The celebrated journey to Rome on the I3th December, 1831, was that from which Lamennais returned in open revolt. Ozanam had not a pleasant recollection of the only interview which he had with him, and he mentions his name henceforward with regret.

The student had plunged into the strenuous work which he described ten years later to his younger brother, Charles :

" You will be soon eighteen years of age — that is the age when I had to forsake everything — for then we had everything — to come to this city where I had not, as you now have, a brother, relatives and friends ; for me there was then one room which was always lonely, books, which brought memories thronging back with them, and faces of strangers. Many a time the shaded light of my lamp, and the glowing embers of the fire were my only companions from tea to bed. Then, too, remembering those whom I had left, I was doubtful if I should again see them on my return to Lyons."

The young law student entered on his studies conscientiously, writing up his notes, as he informs us, immediately on his return from lectures. He was equally particular in the students' debates, frequently opening the argument, either affirmatively or negatively, for the Government or for the opposition, in which his readiness of speech first made itself known. The young law officer in debate wrote home : " Although I have been complimented, I felt I was very weak ; I did not know my brief sufficiently well."

34 FREDERICK OZANAM

A free course of lectures on Social and Political Economy, delivered by M. de Coux, possessed great interest for Ozanam. M. de Coux was one of the three young Professors who, in May, 1831, had opened the Free School ; its brilliant success was still much spoken of. His system broke with the philosophical and economical school of Adam Smith, of J. B. Say, of Sismondi, etc., whom he justly charged with being concerned only with wealth and the production of wealth, to the neglect of man himself, oblivious of the fact that moral virtue also possesses a value. He charged them with not having attempted to touch the question of the redistribution of public wealth, for fear of antagonising the Church and the Gospel. Ozanam wrote in March, 1832, of this Professor and of his course of lectures : " M. de Coux has begun his series of lectures on Political Economy, which are both interesting and informing. I beg of you to put your name down for them. His lectures are crowded, because they contain truth and living interest, a knowledge of the cancer that is eating into society and of the remedy which alone can cure it."

He translated from German a little book of Bergmann's on the religion of Thibet, another of Mone's on the mythology of the Lap landers. He read Vice's Philosophy of History ; he resumed the study of Hebrew with the deliberate intention of sounding the depths of sacred history. As he said to his friends : " There never was a time when a History of Religions was more called for by social needs. That will be our special work ; it is maturing in our youthful mind ; it will come in its own good time : Tempus erit."

The young men, whose co-operation the Abbe Noirot had assured him would be forthcoming, were already beginning to appear. He was scarcely a month in Paris when, on the 2Oth November, he was able to write to a former comrade : " I hope to succeed in founding the association of which I spoke to you. I have already some material to start on."

Six weeks later he returns to the subject : " You well know how desirous I was to have around me young men of the same sentiments and opinions as my own. Now I know that they are to be found, that they are numerous, but scattered, like so many needles in bundles of straw. Difficult indeed is the task of him who would rally them under one flag. However, I hope in my next letter to be able to give you more definite details."

At length, on the loth February, 1832, he was able to announce

ASSOCIATIONS OF YOUNG CHRISTIANS 35

joyfully, "Our numbers are greater than we thought. I am finding young men here of decided views and noble sentiments, who are devoting their minds and their energies to the lofty mission which is also ours."

Notable associations of young active Christians were to be found in the Restoration period. We must not forget the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin, which, founded in 1801, had grown up under the Empire, until it became a power as helpful to the Church as it was hateful to her enemies. Beside it, flourished in the Quartier Latin La Societe des Bonnes Etudes, presided over by a great and a good man, a Professor of Philosophy, M. Bailly de Surcy. He estab lished it near the Law School, Estrapade Place, where he himself lived, and received a few good young men as paying guests. There they found books, papers, reading and meeting rooms, with the advantage of the supervision and the advice of a wise father.

Those two associations had had a good moral and religious effect on the young men in the schools. The July Revolution destroyed them either by scattering or dividing their members. But listen to Ozanam :

" Nothing but the ruins of the Societe des Bonnes Etudes remained, when a friend suggested to me to re-open its doors. The literary society which then foregathered in the small rooms of M. Bailly 's paper The Catholic Tribune, scarcely numbered 15 regular members. Moreover the rather unscientific surroundings did not readily lend themselves to serious investigation. Indeed such weighty questions as the fate of the past and the future would be slow to gain a hearing in such a timid gathering." Nevertheless it is of this cradle — or was it a grave ? that Ozanam was able to say in the year 1833, " Thanks to the zeal of some former members, this Society has developed in a most extra ordinary way."

It had developed by transformation. The idea occurred to M. Bailly, the man destined to bind together the youth of the past and the future, to organise conferences of Literature, History, and Philosophy, to Avhich Christian students would rally. He proposed to recruit the latter, who were few in number, according as it would seem good to him, from outside groups, whom, he did not wish to exclude altogether.

It is a propos of this conference that Ozanam wrote soon after : "" Applications for membership are on the increase. We have got some young recruits of superior ability, among whom are to be found great travellers, Art critics, experts in Political Economy.

36 FREDERICK OZANAM

The majority read History, some Philosophy. We have even some who are endowed with poetic genius, and who will one day be great poets, if death or the storms of life do not interrupt their development.'* We shall meet them again in the course of the great work.

The Salon of the young Count Charles de Montalembert was on Sundays the rendezvous of a very select coterie. Frederick Ozanam was introduced by Ballanche. The diversity of age and intellect to be found there was very striking. Ozanam's letters tell us of savants like Baron Eckstein, philosophers like Ballanche, poets like Alfred de Vigny, the Polish Mickiewiez, and even Sainte-Beuve who, destined to wander through many worlds, was then curiously exploring the Catholic world ; intellectual opponents like Lherminier, dreamers awakened by the misery of the people, like Considerant. Felix de Merode had been there ; Victor Hugo was to come. " Last Sunday," wrote Ozanam, " I had a conversation with Lherminier. Then a very interesting discussion sprang up between him and Montalembert. We remained listening to them until midnight. Victor Considerant was also of the circle ; there was much talk about the existing misery of the people, and gloomy anticipations were formed for the future." The dominating question which absorbed every one's attention was the Social Problem. Montalembert, then in all his youthful brillancy, " did the honours in his salon with extraordinary grace," which Ozanam particularly noticed. " Montalembert," he wrote, " has the figure of an angel and the conversation of a savant. He tells a story well and has a fund of information. We discuss history, literature, the interests of the poor, the progress of civilisation." The only questions expressly excluded were points of doctrine (such as those professed by L'Avenir "), on which Rome had commanded silence. In this regard the greatest tact and prudence were observed.

" One breathes there a delicious atmosphere of Catholicity and of fraternity. One is encouraged, one's heart is warmed, and one brings back a sweet feeling of satisfaction, of a pure pleasure, a soul mistress of herself, courage and resolution for the future. We return in joyous groups of four and five. I hope to go there occasionally."

This page finishes with a rallying battle-cry : " The future is before us. Comrades, let us prepare and be ready for it ; let us stand against all enemies, let us face every trial. Let us remember that suffering is a condition of progress and that friendship sweetens sorrows which we cannot escape.

CIVIL WAR AND CHOLERA 37

In every letter addressed to those friends whom he left in Lyons, Ozanam braces himself and others to an active Christian life.

The young man had even then a presentiment of the disasters which were reserved for the end of his time. The following lines show extraordinary foresight in this regard : " If courage is needed to live now-a-days, it will be still more necessary in the immediate future. The best informed minds all tell us that we have come to the beginning of a series of disasters and universal upheavals. Governments and peoples are standing face to face as enemies. In France the Repub lican party is growing strong and no longer conceals its designs of violence. A policy of extermination grounded on hatred is declared. I believe that civil war is imminent, and all Europe, entangled in the meshes of Freemasonry, will be its theatre."

The calamities of the year 1832 supervened and added to his sadness. Civil War bathed his native city, Lyons, in blood . Riots broke out daily in Paris where cholera also spread death and terror. At one period 1300 deaths a day were recorded. The scourge carried off nearly every one on one side of the street Fosses-Saint-Victor, while the opposite side, where M. Ampere lived, seemed immune. Ozanam writes to his mother translating one of the Psalms at Complin : "A thousand shall fall on thy side, and ten thousand on thy right hand. But death shall not come nigh thee, because thou hast said, Thou O Lord art my hope ; thou hast made the Most High thy refuge." Though this letter, so full of faith and courage cannot be found we have been informed that Madame Ozanam read it to his friends with deep emotion.

His family pressed him to return, but the young man prayed to be allowed to remain in Paris. He urged the necessity of his studies and the nearness of his examination. The consolation of charity, which he carried to the bedside of his sick friends, helped to bind him to Paris. One of these latter, the Parish Priest of Notre Dame des Champs, afterwards Abbe Duchesne, always spoke with pleasure of the frequent and cheerful visits which he received in those dark days. The Abbe's tastes were literary. When convalescing, he asked Ozanam to get him some suitable reading. The next day he was brought the account of the three great classical pestilences in literature, viz., that of Athens by Thucydides, that described by Lucretuis, and that of Milan in / Promessi Sposi of Manzoni ; the last, transformed into a sublime spectacle of consolation by the Christian devotion and heroic

38 FREDERICK OZANAM

charity of Cardinal Borromeo. That is what he exactly desired to demonstrate.

There is a species of artificial melancholy, which the young man of action repudiates with energy. " Are you still weighed down with a sweet sadness?" he asked Falconnett. "My dear friend, let there not be over much day-dreaming and academic introspection. Let us rescue our studies from the field of empty theorising and vain specula tion, let us translate during life our beliefs into deeds." Two of his Lyons companions, Fortoul and Huchard, had joined the long-haired band of young France. Ozanam pities them : " Neither Chateau briand, nor Lamartine are advanced enough for them. Nothing will do them but Victor Hugo : Notre Dame de Paris, Plick et Plock, A tar Gull, Marion Delorme. These, for them, embrace all literature."

He suffered from uncertainty of temper and indifferent health, against which, however, his natural good humour asserted itself. " I often scold myself and pout, but I always end by making peace with myself although I be but a sorry lord. By increased effort I shall merit success .... My dear friend, for you, gravity, for me, energy, for both, the instruction of our fathers, the example of our mothers, the kindness of Providence. Then, perhaps, it will be one day vouch safed to us to leave behind us some little good, to be recognised as men of good will in the ranks of the sages."

That steadiness of conviction and resolution, that courage, that certainty, in the first steps of his career, which Ozanam has j ust attri buted to the instruction and example of his parents were also largely to be attributed in Paris, to the daily example of the holy layman whose guest he was, and to the direction of a humble priest, whose name we shall now mention.

The greater of the two, M. Andre-Marie Ampere, was not only a second father to Ozanam, he was at all times a religious model. M. Ampere, as the young man wrote to his mother, was completing at this time his great synthetic work, the Classification des Sciences or the Philosophic des Sciences. Having recognised the beautiful gifts of mind which Providence had given the young man, he called him to the honour of helping in the work under his dictation. The pages still bear witness to that fact, written partly by one and partly by the other. Their daily discourse on the Laws of the Universe evoked from the soul of the savant spontaneous outbursts of admiration and adoration of Him Who made those laws. Ozanam describes moments

THE ABBfi MARDUEL 39

of enthusiasm when Ampere, putting his head, filled with knowledge and crowned with honour, between his hands, cried out in transport : " Ozanam, how great God is, how mighty He is I" Ampere adored the God of the universe in His temple. Ozanam relates that one day, when anxious and downcast, he entered the Church of St. fitienne-du- Mont to unbosom himself. The Church was empty and silent. A few women were kneeling at the Shrine of St. Genevieve. Alone in a corner, the figure of a man appeared motionless, absorbed in prayer. Ozanam saw him, drew near, and recognised Ampere, humbled in the Divine Presence. Having observed him for a few moments he went away much edified, and more than ever devoted to the service of God !

It was a great matter for M. Ampere that Ozanam desired to remain in Paris during the cholera scourge, to replace the old man's absent son. We have shown that on the opposite side of the same street neighbours were struck down and died in a few short moments. Fear ing a like fate, M. Ampere, whose room was directly over the young student's, did not fail to say each night on retiring : 'Ozanam, if the cholera grips me to-night, I shall knock with rny stick on the floor. Do not come upstairs, but run first for my confessor the Abbe X. . . rue de Sevres, and then send for my doctor."

Ozanam recalled with gratitude such beautiful instances of Christian ity when standing by the grave of his second father : " The venerable head, that judged everything, including science itself, in the light of divine things, bent down unreservedly before the divine mysteries, and humbled itself before sacred teaching. He knelt at the same altar as Descartes and Pascal, by the side of the poor widow and the little

child, less humble than he If he leaves a great void

among the intellectual elite, what sorrow does he not also leave in the hearts of those, who had the privilege of knowing him intimately and of enjoying the benefits of his example and of his virtues !"

The other name that must be mentioned in the first rank of the guides of Ozanam 's youth during the five years of his student life in Paris is not widely known. I have not hitherto named the director and true spiritual father of that soul. Abbe Marduel had first been Vicar of St. Nizier, in Lyons, and was later called to Paris to his uncle, the Parish Priest of St. Roch. He was now advanced in years, living quietly in retirement in rooms in the Rue Massillon, near Notre-Dame. Here penitents of every class had found him out, bishops, priests, peers of France, lords, doctors, students, workmen, poor people;

40 FREDERICK OZANAM

for all were received with the same welcome, treated with the same kindness. Everyone was at ease with him. He was simple, wise, well-informed, prudent and pious ; praying always and telling his beads when failing sight prevented him from reading his office. He had become very poor, had parted with everything, and only possessed the poor pittance that St. Roch parish allowed him, and which he shared with those poorer than he, the while his old servant ransacked the city to procure the necessaries of life for him.

His sanctity, his continual union with God, had gained for him supernatural power in the direction of souls, — which he seemed to be able to see and read. He dispelled clouds and illusions, bringing in their place light and peace and joy. He was indeed the priest needed by Ozanam, whose sensitive conscience was often subjected to interior trials revealed to us in his letters.

It was to Pere Marduel that Frederick had been recommended, on his departure from Lyons, by his parents and by the Abbe Ozanam, who had himself been a short time before under the same direction : "One need not be astonished," the latter states, " at the progress made by the young student in this school of gentle piety. His well deserved confidence in, and deference to the counsels of this wise intellect, the divine enlightenment which he received, the sacred fire which was there enkindled, enabled him, with the grace of God, to triumph in the interior spiritual struggle for truth and virtue. Under his direction, this well-beloved brother, notwithstanding his many occu pations, found plenty of time each day for meditation and prayer." He could not do without the all-powerful aid, which this priest brought him in the frequent use of the Sacraments. In May 1833, Pere Marduel was absent for a month in Lyons. Frederick complained to his mother of the length of that absence, which left his moral state troubled and perplexed. "He is the only intimate spiritual adviser that I have, the only one who, in kindness and wisdom, can take the place of father and mother. He is due to return this evening and I hope to see him to-morrow. As I am shy at making new acquaintances, I have been left all this time to the caprices of my own fancy and imagination."

Then comes the conclusion which is a tribute to the efficacy of Confession : " In very truth, if there be young Protestants of good will, enlightened and religious, I pity them, because they lack a source of grace, of which my own youth stands so sorely in need, and without which I should be altogether desolate or morbid."

CHAPTER IV. ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROPAGATION OF TRUTH.

PROTESTS AT THE SORBONNE. — PETITION TO THE ARCHBISHOP, INTER VIEWS. — CONFERENCES IN NOTRE DAME. — SUBSCRIPTION TO THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN.

1832-34.

We are still in the year 1832, Ozanam's first year in Paris. The groups of Catholic young men, which have been noticed around certain centres, such as M. Bailly's flat, or the literary and political salon of M. de Montalembert, or the conferences in the Law School, commence at this point to single out from among their own ranks, one distingusihed by a great charm of heart, even more than by ability or oratory. It is found, without either himself or anyone else adverting to it or desiring it, that he is the comrade who is listened to, the model who is imitated, the guide who is followed.

Ozanam was neither remarkable for personal beauty nor for winning manners. It was his natural charm and simplicity which first awakened sympathy. Subsequently, the lofty quality of his mind and heart bound others to him for ever. He invariably presented - the dreamy appearance that comes from frequent meditation. But it was not at all moodiness ; his disposition was sweet ; he delighted in cheerful company and he was more than once heard to say that " his worst company was himself." Truly humble, he never pushed himself forward. He had but to unconsciously appear himself as he really was, to inspire good men with a desire to know him, and with a longing to approach him. It was in that way that his first friends in Paris were attracted.

The membership of the group was naturally formed of young students from Lyons, whom civic patriotism and similar religious sentiments brought together. Ozanam often mentions Henri Pesson- neaux, his affectionate cousin who, not being able to do without him,

42 FREDERICK OZANAM

crossed Paris on foot each evening from the Rue de Courcelles to the Montagne St. Genevieve, to satisfy himself that Frederick was well. He then discreetly took his departure without delay, so as not to interrupt this student. The painter Janmot was also from Lyons, a friend of Ozanam from childhood, and his companion at first Holy Communion. He had forgotten nothing of this. A distinguished pupil of M. Ingres, a charming character, a man of cultivated manner, he was an artist who was also a Christian, and was enamoured of the Divine Beauty which he adored. M. Velay was also from Lyons, and was then at the Polytechnic. Ozanam witnessed with regret his departure to take up his residence in the School of Engineering in Metz, where he wrote him : " We shall not hear again your military step on the staircase of the Hotel des £coles, nor the rattle of your splendid sword on the floor of my room ! But you are missed, you are spoken of, you are remembered, and when a letter from you arrives, it is passed round the circle." Dufieux was also from Lyons, a great and a brave heart, who, sorely tried in later years by cruel experiences, knew no better nor more sympathetic friend than him who wrote : " I love you in Him Who loves us both. Offer to Him on my behalf some of those holy things which make you so dear to Him and to me."

I should have mentioned earlier, Edmond Le Jouteux ; Chaurand too, who will be found with Ozanam at the foundation of the conferences of St. Vincent De Paul in Lyons ; Paul Brae de la Perriere ! Frederick is astonished, nay, vexed with himself, that he had not known him, a Lyons man, in Lyons before his student days in Paris : " But God, who draws the clouds together to scatter the lightning, also draws souls together, when He is pleased, to radiate love."

One day, when he was present at the course of Oriental Archaeology at the College of France, Professor Letronne, Geographer, Egyptologist, Chronologist, the highest scientific authority of the time in that branch of science, was at some pains to demolish what he contemptuously called "the legend of Genesis." Ozanam, silent but restless, shook his head significantly in dissent. He was noticed by another student who was also of his way of thinking. After the lecture, he looked for him to compare notes. Ozanam had gone, but not for good. They found one another again.

Lallier — for it was he — gave the following account to a friend, who has given us the account word for word, of their coming together : "As I left the Law School, generally alone, I noticed that a small

GROUPING OF FRIENDS 43

group of students, always composed of the same members, were stand ing on the footpath near the Rue Soufflot. In the middle of the group was one who spoke warmly, and who was listened to. Who is, I asked myself, this young chanticleer (sic) to whom those fellows pay so much attention? — I recognised Ozanam. Moved by curiosity, as well as by sympathy, I drew near the group and j oined in the conversation . Ozanam replied to my remarks. When the others had dispersed, after a little while, we two resumed the conversation, exchanging views, getting to understand one another better. Thus occupied, we accompanied each other home from lodgings to lodgings interminably." In Lallier, Ozanam found a brother-in-arms.

On another occasion it was on the steps of the Law School that Ozanam was noticed by a comrade. The latter wonders, who is this silent, observant young man, quite up-to-date in appearance and manners. On leaving the Church of St. fitienne-du-Mont, he happened to find himself face to face with him, and, recognising him, stretches out his hand : " What ! you are then a Catholic ? Please excuse me, as I thought you were anything but that. Let us become friends." This young man was M. de Goy. Determined above all things to avoid evil companions, he had spent six months in Paris without a friend.

Other affinities constituted the bond of friendship : birth, education, profession, and, above all, conviction. The father of a second year's law student, Paul Lamache, from St. Pierre-Eglise in La Manche, was a doctor, his brother a priest just like Ozanam's, he had two sisters, wholly given up to God and the poor, even as Ozanam's young sister had been. He had played the same part at th^ College of Rouen, that Frederick had played at that of Lyons, a defender and apostle of faith. He had found a friend and a guide in his Master, Pere Faucon, just as Ozanam had found in his Professor, Pere Noirot. " Moreover," says his biographer, " both the sturdy Norman and the frail and delicate Lyons youth had dreams in common, which are to be found in their correspondence ; so many marks of intellectual and moral relationship." From the day they met at the feet of the same masters they recognised one another for brothers. The three names of Ozanam, Lallier, and Lamache will not be again found separated in the early part of this history.

Others joined up in the same way. They must aim at the same goal. Ozanam wrote, that it was time to rally them around one flag ; the

44 FREDERICK OZANAM

flag of the defence of religion against impudent and insolent irreligion.

Everything hastened the necessity for that defence. The attack was violent. Anti-Christianity raged in the Press, the schools, the hustings. There was every support for doctrines which were called liberal, and which under the July regime gave full play to every form of free thought and party passion. The University especially was taking full revenge for the discipline under which it had groaned during the Restoration. The Sorbonne, the College of France, were parti cularly aggressive. Our young Catholics who were not obscurantists returned from those schools in pain, in anger, and in revolt.

But they were in a decided minority. Discouragement was general even in the counsels of the Church in France. With timid silence on the one hand, and brazen falsehood on the other, what could they do, that handful of boys, against the voice of the recognised masters of science and eloquence, borne on the wings of power and popular favour? To listen in silence, to register no protest ! That they did not wish to do. To write to the Press ? They would not be read. They de cided to oppose speech to the spoken word, face to face, on the same ground, at the same moment, to the same audience, whose pardon and good-will they hoped to win, in the names of truth and liberty.

In a letter, dated loth February, 1832, that is to say, only four months after his arrival in Paris, Ozanam gave the following account of the plan of campaign against the anti-Christian teaching at the Sorbonne : " We have in our growing ranks young men of noble dis position who have given themselves up to this great work. Every time that a Professor raises his voice against Revelation, Catholic voices are raised in protest ! Many of us have agreed to do that. On two different occasions I have taken my share in this noble work, by sending in my objections in writing to those gentlemen. Our replies, which are read out, have had the best possible effect both on the Pro fessor, who all but retracted, and on the class, who applauded. The most striking result is, that it shows the young student, that it is possible to be a Catholic and have common sense, to love religion and liberty at the same time. It serves to withdraw young men from religious indifference, and to accustom them to the discussion of serious matters."

A letter written to Ernest Falconnet adds : "Our cause is the cause of the Gospel. I shall let you know all that will be done by us for the honour and the victory of this holy cause."

JOUFFROY'S LECTURES 45

As a matter of fact, less than two months later, on the 25th March, he writes that the first affairs " were but skirmishes," adding : " To day, I am glad to be able to tell you that we are engaged in a more serious encounter. The scene of the Battle is the Chair of Philosophy, M.Jouffroy's lectures.

Attached to the Sorbonne, President of Conferences at the ficole Normale, in charge of a course of lectures in the College of France, Deputy for his constituency of Pontarlier since 1831, Theodore Jouffroy, at the age of 36, was, by the elevation of his mind and the authority of his speech, one of the leaders of free thought. He was the man of evil omen who, in his famous Globe article, Whither Dogma Leads, was sounding by degrees the knell of Christianity. He was the unquiet, and troubled pschycologist who presented in a splendid way The Problem of Human Destiny, the solution of which was only to be found, according to him, in a helpless and plaintive scepticism. Under those flowers of speech Ozanam declared that he saw nothing but ruins, ruins both of faith and reason, on which the philosopher, with un certain hand, was ready to rear the temple of future religion. He exclaimed : "Such is M. Jouffroy's preaching in the Sorbonne, the ancient Sorbonne, which Christianity founded, and the dome of which is still crowned with the the sign of the Cross."

Ozanam described his protest as follows, without, however, men tioning his own name : " M. Jouffroy, having gratuitously attacked Revelation, and even the possibility of Revelation, a young Catholic layman sent him a reply thereto in writing. The philosopher promised to answer it ; he deferred his answer a fortnight, do^< vtless to get his weapons ready. At the end of this period he did not read out the letter of protest, but summarised it from his own point of view, and endeavoured to reply to that. The young Catholic, finding him self misrepresented, sent in a second letter to the Professor. The latter took no notice of it, made no reference to it, but continued his attacks, claiming that Catholicity was inconsistent with Science and liberty.

"Thereupon we came together; we drew up a joint protest proclaiming our sentiments ; it had fifteen signatures hurriedly attached to it and was forwarded to M. Jouffroy. This time there was no course left open to him but to read it -aloud. The large audience, over two hundred in number, listened to our profession of faith with respect. The philosopher laboured in vain to reply. He fashioned

46 FREDERICK OZANAM

excuses, assuring all that he had no desire to single out Christianity for attack ; that he had the greatest possible respect for it, and that in the future he would see that no form of religious belief was offended. But more important still, he stated a very remarkable fact, and one which gave great encouragement at that particular time: "Gentle men," he said, " for the last five years the only objections I received came from materialists ; it was spiritual doctrine that found the greatest possible opposition ; to-day all is changed, the objections are all from Catholics."

What Ozanam had put forward was simply an expression of the inability of science to satisfy the intellectual needs of man, the poverty of natural knowledge to fill the human mind, hungry for supernatural enlightenment, the actual instability of reason as a foundation for moral conduct. But, then, what follows immediately and directly from these three facts, if not the necessity for Revelation ?

Such was his letter, with a pious and fraternal conclusion for the benefit of the young student of Lyons, whom he expects at Paris : " As for you, my dear friend, prepare for the struggle by the practice of the Gospel which you will be called upon to defend. Pray for us who are entering on our career and who stretch out our hands to you with a great and fraternal friendship, while awaiting the day when you will take your place in our ranks."

Thus was our young Daniel prophesying, in the name of the true God, before princes and sages. Thus did the Professors of the Sor- bonne iearn to know him who, ten years later, was to sit in their midst, and to become their colleague. Meantime they became more moderate in their language. Perhaps he who profited most was the same Theodore Jouffroy, who said later, when dying : "All these systems lead nowhere. A single act of Christian faith is worth many thousand such."

In very truth the grace and light of God were at that time resting on the young man scarce 20 years of age, whose lips and whose heart the Divine Hand had touched and sanctified. It is still in the very early days of his sojourn in Paris, it is on the morrow of his passionate and lofty protest at the Sorbonne, that the letter dated the loth February adds : " The most attractive and most edifying meetings for Christian young men are the Conferences which the Abbe Gerbet has inaugurated at our request."

OZANAM AT 20 (AFTER JANMOT).

THE ABB£ GERBET 47

Ozanam and his friends had sought at his place of residence in the Sorbonne the priest, then 34 years of age, whom Cousin described as " A mystical angel." Lecturer on Holy Scripture in the Faculty of Theology in Paris, founder of the monthly magazine Le Memorial Catholique," an erudite philosopher, a profound theologian, a refined writer, the Abbe Gerbet had published in 1829 his Considerations, both dogmatic and mystical, on what he called the " Motive Dogma of Catholic Piety," that is the Blessed Eucharist. He sought traces of primitive Revelation in universal tradition and in the historical evidence of mankind. In this he was akin to Ozanam who also was tending in this direction and who wrote as follows of him : " One can now say that light is piercing the darkness. Every fortnight the Abbe Gerbet gives us a lecture on the Philosophy of History. We have never heard such analytic reasoning nor more profound doctrine. So far he has given only three lectures, yet the Hall is crowded with celebrities, and with young men thirsting for knowledge. I saw de Potter, Sainte-Beuve, Ampere junior, drinking in the teaching of the young priest."

Ozanam noticed that "Lammenais' system, as unfolded by the Abbe Gerbet, was no longer the same as that of Lammenais' pro vincial followers." It was not even the same as what its master claimed to be the foundation of evangelical proof, but merely a pre liminary series of inductive proofs leading to the truth of Revelation. "It is," continues Ozanam, " the representation of the everlasting alliance of faith and science, of charity and labour, of power and liberty. Applied to history it enlightens it, it unravels the destiny of the future. There were not any tricks of the charlatan ; his voice was weak, his gestures awkward, his delivery easy and quiet. But towards the end of the lecture he becomes animated, his face glows, the light of Heaven is on his brow and prophecy on his lips." Have we not in this picture of the Abbe Gerbet an advance portrait of Ozanam himself as he is remembered by his audience in the Sorbonne ?

But those conferences, if I may say so, with closed doors, held in a Hall — that of the Place de 1' Estrapade — capable of seating not more than 300 people, were, in very truth, the light hidden under the bushel. Ozanam asked himself if the advantage could not in some way be extended to the young men of all the schools ? Why should not Paris have, somewhere, its chair in defence of truth, answering in a modern way every question and every need of the present time ? Such was

48 FREDERICK OZANAM

the burden of the conversation of these young men of good will. But who would draw up the petition and present it in high place ?

The time was propitious. Owing to deplorable differences St. Hyacinthe's Academy in the Madeleine — in which the Abbe Dupanloup had given a brilliant series of lectures on Apologetics to the young men — had been closed. Its closing saddened Ozanam who had visited it occasionally out of curious interest. He showed his sympathy by attending the closing meeting not without emotion. He reflected on leaving, " Will there not then be in Paris one Chair of doctrine at the feet of which we can sit for enlightenment ?" " Do you re member," he wrote later to Lallier, " do you remember that famous evening, when we had been present at the final meeting of St. Hyacinthe's Academy. We came straight back and without parting, drew up the petition to His Grace Monsignor de Quelen."

This was in the early days of June, 1833. The petition, drawn up by Ozanam, received the signatures of 100 Catholics. An audience was requested of His Grace the Archbishop, who at once accorded it. The deputation consisted of three members, Ozanam, Le Jouteux, and de Montazet, grand-nephew of the Archbishop of the same name. They knew that the Archbishop himself was very much upset by the closing of Saint Hyacinthe's Academy, and that the cause of the young men was going to be prejudiced by that fact. It was no skeleton of an Academy housed in a chapel, frequented by the initiated, that they had come to ask for. It was no less than the institution in Notre Dame itself, of a Chair of preaching which would be a sword and a torch for the young men of the schools.

The Archbishop, who since the destruction of his residence had been dwelling in the Convent of the Dames de Saint-Michel Rue Saint Jacques, received the young men graciously. Encouraged by the reception, they represented to him the state of mental unrest and " the need for a chair of preaching, which in a modern form, and on the very scene of daily controversy, should engage in hand to hand conflict with the adversaries of Christianity. It would furnish a reply to the objections and difficulties which were raised daily hi public courses of lectures, and which were reproduced and popularised in books and newspapers."

The Archbishop replied that he was of the same opinion ; then, appearing, as it seemed, to be caught up by their infectious enthusiasm : " Yes," said he, " I, too, have a presentiment that some great event

SECOND PETITION TO HIS GRACE 49

is in course of preparation. God is preparing a great victory in our time." He then assured them that he would consider their petition carefully. Thereupon, having blessed them and taken them affec tionately in his arms, he pressed their heads against his breast, saying with great emotion, " I salute in you all Catholic young men."

Nothing was done on that occasion. But the recollection of their reception had left Ozanam and the growing number of his friends an undefined hope that their petition had not been in vain. Therefore, towards the beginning of the following Lent, 1834, Ozanam again ventured to approach the Archbishop. The new petition received 200 signatures. It was in their name that on the i5th February, Ozanam, Lallier and Lamache were admitted into the kindly and fatherly presence. The petition was couched in beautiful terms. It first recalled " the gracious reception and the hopeful words which they had had the preceding year. Then, moved by the urgency of the need, yet grown wiser by the time spent in waiting, they came to pray for such instruction as should sanctify science in their eyes, and demonstrate it and faith marching hand in hand. They were learning to recognise how dry and barren study is, which is not animated by the spirit of religion."

They spoke of their own age, in which man felt the need of well- grounded doctrine to co-ordinate knowledge, on the one hand by attaching it to a higher order of ideas, and, on the other by laying a foundation of duty, and by tracing the path of future life. Religion alone can do that ; but it must be known : " Therefore, your Grace, we had desired those conferences which, without losing time in refuting objections which are to-day outworn, would display Christianity in all its grandeur, and in harmony with the aspirations and necessities of man and society."

To that end they asked for " an exposition of the philosophy of science and art which would discover in Catholicity the source of all truth and beauty; of the philosophy of life, which would show its principle, its progress, and its destiny. They desired that that instruction should come from the pulpit, because the grace which fortifies, the enlightenment which converts, flow from the lips of the priest. They desired that at the feet of that pulpit and in the same building there should be room for all, believers or unbelievers, all receiving in silence the seeds of conviction which would germinate in time. Already we have seen many of our fellow students return to the

50 FREDERICK OZANAM

light. They had strayed from it because they did not recognise it. Oh ! if we could only see that example followed by all the young men of the schools ! If they only knew the beauty of Christianity how they would love it."

The petition gave a glimpse of the Society of Charity which was being established among these young men, united by brotherly affec tion, and by a common faith. It thus concluded, " Then a chorus of praise to God will ascend from all these souls grounded in faith or consoled by charity, a chorus of filial gratitude to the Church, and benediction of Him who will have been the Author of all this good !' At the conclusion of this document these young Christians could truly style themselves "The most humble and obedient servants of His Grace, and his devoted children in Jesus Christ."

The Archbishop was much moved. He encouraged Ozanam, their spokesman, to speak with confidence, so struck was he by the extra ordinarily clear views of a youth of 20 years of age. The latter made bold to mention the names of two priests who would make a success of the undertaking. There could not be any question of the Abbe Gerbet, whose weak voice would not be able to reach such a vast audience. One of the two whom they mentioned was the Abbe Bautain. He had been a talented student of M. Cousin at the £cole Normale and had just come over with note from the philosophy of Rationalism to the true faith. The other probable candidate, and obviously the better, was the Abbe Lacordaire, whose defence before the House of Peers, with Montalembert in his Procts de l'£cole libre, and whose able collaboration in the periodical L'Avenir, had made him dear to the young men.

But what marked him out now for their choice was the brilliant success of his Conferences at Stanislaus College. From the iQth January, when they had been inaugurated, academic and political celebrities had surged with admiration to the foot of the modest but now celebrated pulpit in the all too narrow chapel. There the first sacred orator of Paris showed himself to the young men of the schools as the apologist whom they wanted.

But those very qualities which recommended Lacordaire to the young men, originality of mind and speech adapted to the modern trend of thought, were exactly those which tended to make him suspect to the ancients in the sanctuary. The latter were interested defenders of classical traditions and of ancient ecclesiastical formulas. His collabora-

DECISION OF HIS GRACE 51

tion in the editing of the Avenir was moreover, at the time of the early defection of Lamennais, not a recommendation. Prejudiced minds did not distinguish between those who remained rooted in error, and those who loyally broke with it at any and every sacrifice. Had Ozanam's frank spirit any conception of the mountain of prejudice which he would have to remove in order to carry at the first assault Lacordaire into the pulpit of Notre Dame. Without expressing any opinion on the suggested names, Monsignor de Quelen, naturally hesitating and halting, informed the three delegates that he proposed to make such a beginning as would, in his opinion, satisfy them. This consisted in granting them not one preacher, but seven, selected from the elite of his clergy, who were each to take a Sunday in Lent and preach in turn from the pulpit of Notre Dame on the lines suggested. It was the reply of a man of 1804 to the young men of 1834. He was asked for the bread of Lacordaire, he offered the stone of Monsignor Frayssinous.

" While the conversation on this delicate subject was going forward, the delegates presenting their objections with all deference, the prelate insisting on his solution, the door of the salon opened and M. de Lamennais appeared. Monsignor ran to meet him, shook him warmly by the hand and turning to the young men said, " Here is, gentlemen, the man that would suit you. If his voice could be heard in Notre Dame, the great portals of the metropolitan would be too small to admit the crowds whom his name would attract." Whereupon — it is Lamache who is relating the incident — whereupon, I still seem to see Lamennais, raising his large eyes filled with inexpressible sadness saying : " As for me, Monsignor, as far as I am concerned, my career is ended."

It was indeed at an end ; for (a fact which they did not then know), the Paroles d'un Croyant were printed and about to be published. The three young men arose and took their departure.

The following day an account of the interview appeared in the Universe, the result of an indiscretion. Ozanam and Lallier, who strongly disapproved of it, felt bound to see the Archbishop and apologise for it. Monsignor de Quelen received them as he had done the day before. To show them how anxious he was to meet their wishes, he told them that he had at once sent for the preachers whom he had named and that they were actually meeting in the next room. He put the delegates into touch with them. They were left with these seven priests, among whom the best known were the Abbe

52 FREDERICK OZANAM

Dupanloup, the Abbe Petetot. The others were Peres Fraysse, Dassance, Thibaut, James, Annat. A discussion ensued which was at first somewhat reserved, but which became more animated. It was carried on with the best possible desire to understand one another and under the delusion that they would succeed.

As a matter of fact there was no chance whatever of their coming together. Ozanam's conviction pushed the assault to the extremest limits without as much as piercing the first line of their defence. They separated without understanding each other. Ozanam, on his return to his rooms, drew up a short memorandum for the Archbishop, re inforcing what he had already said ; it was his last cartridge, and it was so much waste powder. The series of the seven sermons was opened in Notre Dame on the i6th February 1834. It met with but a paltry success. The young men still crowded to the chapel in Stanislaus College around the Abbe Lacordaire.

Lacordaire about this time received his first visit from Ozanam, which he thus described in 1854 : " I must go back over many years for my first meeting with Ozanam. I had not yet commenced the course of instruction, which gained me disciples and friends, and I was unsettled in mind. Just at that moment came Ozanam, the advance guard of the army of young men that was to raise me out of my dejection by crowding around my pulpit. ... It was in the winter of 1833-34. He appeared to be about 20 years of age, without the fresh beauty of youth. Pale, like the men of Lyons, of middle height, without grace, his eyes shot piercing glances while his face presented an appearance of gentleness. His brow which was not without a certain nobility, was adorned with a fringe of thick long black hair which gave him a certain air of wildness designated by the Latin word incomptus

What did he want of me at that time ? Ozanam came to

me because he was a Christian and I was a priest. But he also came, urged on by concern for all that he held dearest in the world, faith, country, charity, the future of Christianity and Truth. The young man had arrived in Paris to find the ruins caused by impiety which called itself liberty. The fragile edifice (La Congregation) which had afforded a place of refuge to those few who had perchance survived, no longer existed ; the Revolution of 1830 had trampled it under foot ; and Ozanam arrived pure, sincere and zealous, to find himself in a silent void.

" It never occurred to him that God had sent him to fill that void. Yet, on the morrow of defeat, he was to be one of the first to acquire,

LACORDAIRE 53

in the name of Jesus Christ, the holy power of a popularity without reproach. As for us, who belonged to both periods, who had ex perienced both contempt and honour, our eyes grew moist with tears that would not be kept back at the prospect, and we fell down in thanksgiving to Him " Who cannot err in His gifts."

How best to state that the conferences in Stanislaus College were suspended ? That, when Lacordaire asked to be allowed to resume them, conditions were imposed, which neither his sense of dignity nor his sense of liberty could accept ? He had been denounced to the Government " as a fanatical Republican, who was quite capable of turning the mind of the young men." He was denounced to the Archbishop as a preacher of novel and dangerous doctrine. Lacordaire withdrew and remained silent.

No one was more affected by this counter-attack than the young Christian, who had based great hopes on those addresses. Nevertheless no one knew better than he how to maintain his hope and his faith in the face of the trial. The only complaint which escaped his lips was an admirable act of charity for his brothers in misfortune, and of noble submission to the hand of God, which would ever be his sole, his all-powerful support. He wrote as follows to M. Velay : —

"We are not to hear Lacordaire again. It is a great grief to us who needed the bread of the Word, and who had grown accustomed to such excellent nourishment, to be deprived of it suddenly without any substitute. It is still a greater sorrow for us to see our brothers who were on the road to truth, return to their wandering ways, shaking their heads and shrugging their shoulders."

" It may be that Heaven demanded that silence, that abstention on the part of Catholics, as yet another sacrifice. It may be that we had dared to look up too soon. We put our hope in the speech of one man ; and God placed His hand on that mouth, to teach us to be Christians without him, to teach us to do without everything save only faith and virtue." That half page is pure gold.

Ozanam knew how to wait without allowing his weapons for religious defence to rust. Exactly two months later, the same Catholic young men, who protested against the philosophic teaching in the Sorbonne, the same signatories to the petition for the institution of sermons in Notre Dame, were again standing shoulder to shoulder defending liberty and truth against those who were attacking the growing Catholic University of Louvain.

54 FREDERICK OZANAM

Ozanam wrote as follows to a friend : " You must lend your name

and hand over the sum of one smiling under the following circumstances.

You doubtless are aware that the Belgian Bishops have founded a

University. As such an institution was certain to be a brilliant success

in such a Catholic country as Belgium, irreligion has become alarmed ;

groups of students from the State University of Louvain have shouted

insults under the windows of two of the Bishops ; scurrilous attacks

have also appeared in the Press. We have thought it our duty to

send a reply, in the name of the Catholic youth of the University of

France, and we have drawn up a protest which has been inserted in

the French Gazette, in the Catholic Universe and in three Belgian papers.

All our mutual friends have signed and subscribed." ....

Ozanam wrote the protest on the I5th April 1834. It stated : " The Belgian episcopate have founded a University, both Catholic and free. — A Catholic University : It should be a cause of rejoicing to the Church, to see raised within her yet another monument to the immortal alliance of Science and Faith, yet another contradiction for those who announce the early decease of Christianity — A free University : this should be a source of pride for all friends of Belgian nationality, proud of the foundation, in a land too long enslaved, of an institution free from all foreign protection, free from all state intervention, worthy of a people who are the true friends of enlighten ment and liberty."

Ozanam then went on to deal with the vulgar abuse, the insults worthy of a fishwife, hurled by students, alike unworthy of their time and of their country, sad remnants of the impious i8th century. The student youth of Paris, standing shoulder to shoulder with their Belgian confreres, speaking the same tongue, engaged in the same studies, could not but be interested in their achievements. " We even protest/' he continued, " in the name of those, who, while not pro fessing our belief, desire freedom for the development of all great conceptions, of all noble thoughts, of all useful undertakings."

Ozanam does not indeed forget that he and his friends are the students of a State University. " But," he said, " we are first and above all sons of the Church ; without ingratitude to our own alma mater, we to-day envy our Belgian brothers the happiness of receiving from one and the same hand, the bread of scientific knowledge and the bread of the Sacred Word ; they have not to divide their instruction into two parts, one of error and one of truth." That is his Act of Faith.

LOUVAIN 55

In conclusion, he hopes " that one day France also will enjoy a like benefit." Meanwhile, as a token of fraternal affection, he and his friends subscribe for some shares in the undertaking. "The word ' share ' is a grand word. But it need not frighten even a student's purse, for, as each ' share ' is only one shilling, there is not a single student who cannot become a shareholder, without encroaching too heavily on his capital."

To-day, 76 years later, the Catholic University of Louvain numbers 2,000 students ; France can point to five Catholic Universities. Ozanam's desire has been granted.

The next year 1835, on the 8th of March, Lacordaire took possession of the pulpit in Notre Dame, for the greater honour and glory of God. What aid did Ozanam, first as a student and then as a professor, bring to the master's address ? We shall answer that question in its proper place.

It was full time that Truth should find expression through a worthy channel. About that time a letter of Ozanam 's stated that Lamennais had just sent on its stormy passage the Paroles d'un Croyant. "One hears nothing but discussion of this publication," he wrote sadly. " Pere Lacordaire criticises it very severely, and looks forward to its complete repudiation at an early date. The intimate friends of the great author, Gerbet, de Coux, Montalembert, have broken definitely with him, so that he appears to be absolutely alone. May God have mercy on him !"

" Farewell, my dear friend, let us love one another. The great feasts of the Church are approaching. Let us be found together in the presence of God, since we cannot come together in the sight of men. Unable to exchange conversation, let us pray for one another ; that will be still better !"

CHAPTER V.

THE CONFERENCE OF HISTORY. THE OPEN CONFERENCE. — DEFENCE OF THE CHURCH BY SPEECH AND PEN. —

La Tribune. — La Revue Contemporaine. — SAINT SIMONIANS. — VArm De La Religion. — CHARITABLE ACTION. — "LET us GO TO THE POOR."

1833.

The Conference of History and of Philosophy which M. Bailly, with the co-operation of Ozanam, had founded on the ruins of the Societe des Bonnes Etudes had quadrupled its membership in one year. Thus Ozanam was able to write on the I3th March 1833 : " To-day the Conference numbers sixty young men, many of great ability, and the large hall in which we meet is filled to overflowing." We have already seen first a hundred, on a second occasion two hundred signa tures at the foot of Ozanam 's petitions to Monsignor de Quelen. If all those were not members of the Conference, they were, at least, all friends.

A little handbook which was published towards the close of 1833 furnishes a long and varied list of the subjects of debate in the Con ference during the year. In addition to the scientific works to which we shall refer, Ozanam mentions " Poetry and its Influence," " Clerical and Lay Action," and " The Philosophy of Christianity." He read his own verses on New Year's Day. Lallier read papers on "Mahom- medanism," " Moral and Material Wealth," the " Economic Theory of Critical and Organic Epochs." Lamache examined, "Painting on Glass, Architecture and Statuary in the Middle Ages." Le Taillandier treated " The History of Religious Orders," " The Funda mental Beliefs of Antiquity," " The Constitution of the Jewish Nation." Dan ton, the future Inspector-General of the University, reviewed 'The

PAPERS READ AT MEETINGS 57

Spanish Insurrection under Charles VI." Cheruel handled "The Prin ciples of Wealth," "The Present State of Religion and Philosophy," a " Glance into the Future," etc. We learn that "many points of view found expression on the platform, that the love of Truth presided over the debates, that though members might differ in opinions, they never differed in friendship."

Nor were the papers always on pure dilettantism . Ozanam frequently introduced ardent religious propaganda, for the Conference was, in his eyes, the theatre of an "intellectual apostolate." He was careful and conscientious in his preparation. He confides to one of his Lyons friends that he works hard at any paper he prepares. " I am writing a short history of the religious conceptions of antiquity for the Con ference ; I have already examined those of China and India. However shallow the research may be, it is always of value to me, for it always establishes the same truth. After traversing a long labyrinth of allegories and myths, one discovers at the end the key-word of mystery, which is the Word of God."

Each Conference was summarised by a Committee who reported to a full meeting. The discussion on the report was, among those young men, a veritable battle.

Whereas the Societe des Bonnes Etudes had been a closed body, reserved for a certain class of young Catholics of a particular shade of political thought, the Conference of History was open to every mind desirous of instruction, to every shade and difference of contemporary thought, all of which Ozanam counted on bringing over to his propaganda. •' The lists are open to every form of thought, even to the doctrines of St. Simon, and, politics alone excepted, there is full and complete liberty of debate. Young philosophers come to demand from Catholic ity an account of its doctrine and of its works. Then, impelled by the inspiration of the moment, one of us faces the attack, develops the Christian point of view which has been misunderstood, unfolds the pages of history to show the glory of the works of the Church, and finding perhaps an unexpected fund of eloquence in the grandeur of the subject, establishes upon a solid basis the immortal union of true philosophy and faith."

This ' one of us ' was generally Ozanam himself, as being incon- testably the one who knew most and spoke best. He was ready, quick, prompt and picturesque in reply. In his eyes the enemy was always the Saint Simon doctrine, discredited, it is true, in its applica-

58 FREDERICK OZANAM

tion, but attractive in its philosophy. It was then orienting towards Positivism under Augusta Comte, Professor in the Polytechnic. Just as after 1880, it claimed to be the "Religion of Humanity," the suc cessor to ancient Christianity which was now outworn and defunct. Answering on one occasion a speaker who, in the role of gravedigger, would proceed in haste to inter ancient Christianity, Ozanam thus began : " When the savages in America are getting ready to make a bloody descent on their brothers in the desert, they never fail, in order to buoy up their courage, to chant a war-song, celebrating the victory that is to come, counting in advance the scalps torn from their enemies. Such is, according to travellers, the custom of the Hurons and the Iroquois. Is it possible that this custom has penetrated here? Is it not, as a matter of fact, to be found in the paean of triumph pre maturely intoned by a biassed partisan ?"

This conqueror " in a hurry " was called Broet. " M. Broet claims that Catholicity is a spent force, that it is expiring in the anarchy which is tearing it to pieces, in the lethargy which is lulling it into a sleep of death, unconcerned and incapable of benefiting humanity. I beg of him to pursue that line of thought with me."

The rest may be surmised. " The Church, divine in the enduring basis of its constitution and the perpetual and universal fruitfulness of its action, teaching truth, doing good, radiating beauty through out the ages ; reigning to-day over men's minds, hearts and morals ; adored by her children, victorious over her enemies, a conqueror of two hemispheres." . . . Having thus re-habilitated the condemned one, the young apostle stops and exclaims : " It is enough. What purpose does it serve to shout to the nations 'Catholicity is dead !' ? Our ears are deafened with that funeral oration for the last eighteen hundred years. That same presumed death was hurled in the teeth of the Apostles. They, too, heard the agonies of the dying referred to, Quasi Morientes. They answered nothing ; but they conquered the world."

The young man joined propaganda by speech with that of the pen in the Press. The Catholic Press was then represented by some poor publications. The clergy knew only " The Friend of Religion and of the King" —which had then become " The Friend of Religion " with out the King— when M. Bailly in 1832 returned to publish La Tribune, Gazette du Clerge, if not actually in opposition to it, certainly in com petition with it. It claimed " to raise the interests of the Church

SAINT-SIMONISM 59

above passing political opinions, to be open to ideas of progress through Christianity, to be sympathetic to the development of the alliance of Science and Faith, to repudiate Gallicanism as well as Absolutism, and to be definitely opposed to violent attacks and bitter polemics. " That was the declaration of its policy in which Frederick Ozanam collaborated.

For example, he wrote in 1833, dealing with a work on Hebrew : — " You will find that all rational truth tends to religious truth. Our personal task is, of course, much less. The truths of science are too widely separated and too intricate for one man to collect them as a scattered herd, and drive them before him into the fold. We must give the Christian direction to each one in turn."

A short while afterwards, in July 1833, The Tribune received a still more magnificent and touching contribution from Ozanam. Saint Simonism, already shattered and undermined by ridicule, had sunk in immorality. Its leaders were condemned by law. That was a victory for Ozanam, but he did not celebrate the triumph. Instead of tramp ling on the fallen enemy, he made a grand gesture, if not to raise him, at least to pity him and to give him credit for noble aspirations. He appealed to him to direct those aspirations henceforward to the true Christ, Who alone could satisfy their hearts. Instead of indulging in the prevailing fashion of ridiculing the vanquished, he congratulated them on having shaken off the cloak of indifference in material matters, in order to lead men to think of serious questions of doctrine ; on having dreamed in their own way of the redemption of suffering human ity ; on having done homage to the Gospel even while making it subtle : " The followers of Saint- Simon have wandered from the true path," he insisted with a touching confidence. " For many, that de viation from orthodoxy will be a bending of th^ bow which will spring back again. They are looking for Christ unwittingly. Some have already returned to Him. His arms and the arms of the Church are open to receive the others."

Must not one admire in that article from a very young man " a merciful impartiality, a loftiness of view, a natural tendency to soar, forming one of the best written pieces of Ozanam, the student ? It is better than a master-piece of intellect, it is a master-piece of charity /'

That charity of heart towards those who differed from them, whether they were humiliated or reconciled, was more powerful for victory than the charm of eloquence ! It was none other than the highest form of religious instruction, coupled with the most ardent zeal of an

6o FREDERICK OZANAM

apostle. These young men owed their superiority in the Conference of History to their superior religious instruction as well as to their religious zeal. Ozanam thus explains it : "As the Catholics equal the non- Catholics in number and as they bring to bear on the discussion greater knowledge, ardour, zeal, and assiduity, victory remains always with them."

Their unity also gave them strength. "Easy and intimate friendship a kind of brotherhood reigns among us ; with the others graciousness and courtesy. There are a round dozen of us, more closely united still by ties of mind and heart, a kind of literary company of devoted and sincere friends, who open their souls to each other to express in turn their joys, their hopes and their sorrows."

Ozanam drew the following charming picture of their serious and joyous friendship. " Occasionally, when the air was pure and the breeze balmy, the police, with furtive eyes, could see in the light of the moon reflected from the majestic dome of the Pantheon, six or eight young men walking arm in arm for hours on that deserted square. Their countenances were open, their gait easy, their language enthusias tic, touching, consoling. They spoke of many things earthly and divine ; they gave expression to many noble thoughts, many pious recollections ; they spoke of God and of their parents ; also of friends who were still at home, of their country and of mankind. The frivolous Parisian, who brushed against them on his way to his amusements, did not understand their speech ; it was a dead language which few here know. But I, I understood them, for I was of them, listening to them. I felt and I spoke as they did, and my heart grew strong. I seemed to become a man, and weak and timid as I am, I drew there from strength and energy for the work of the morrow."

This " weak and timid one" was nevertheless he who encouraged them. The "enthusiastic, touching, and consoling language" which they exchanged is the language of his letters of the period, January and March, 1833 : " We indeed have need of something to occupy us, to transport us, to dominate and elevate our thoughts. We need poetry in this cold and prosaic world. But philosophy is also needed to link up our ideal conceptions. A complete doctrine forms the basis of our studies, the motive-power of our action. Catholicism must be this central point towards which are to tend all the enquiries of our intelligence, all the visions of our imagination. Then mental

LACK OF EXPERIENCE 61

vagueness, the evil and depression and the weakness of our age, will disappear."

These young men did not lack enthusiasm, but they were altogether wanting in experience. Did the Conference of History realise whither the admission of every form of religious belief would lead it ? Was not its ardent religious zeal mistaken ? While this young Catholic elite submitted its platform to every form of objection, could it be sure that with all its study, it was in possession of every possible solution ? Ozanam certainly draws attention to the fact, that dis cussion was not on purely theological matters, but only on the history, and the social action of Catholicism. But it is none the less true that to see the sacred cause of religion entrusted for safe-keeping in to hands, which were yet so inexperienced and so poorly equipped, was not re assuring to those who were not so favourable to the boldness of the young men.

One of those was the venerable Pere Picot, founder and editor of the journal, The Friend of Religion. He was of the old regime, whom faithful service in the Catholic Press had invested with almost dicta torial authority among the clergy. Biassed by training against every form of innovation, made distrustful, even obessed by the excesses of the school of Lamennais, he became alarmed at a like peril, to which the doctrine of truth was exposed, when expounded and defended by those juvenile apologists freed from all ecclesiastical control and direction.

It was, in addition, the period of the appearance of the Paroles d'un Croyant. Outstripping the violence of that mad pamphlet Professor Lherminier had just written " The Papacy is completely exhausted. In our country intellect despises it, and it remains silent. But if I were free to expose the secret contempt you would see what worlds of contumely are heaped on that institution."

Ozanam took up the insulting challenge. Ignoring Lherminier and Lamennais, he explained to the Conference of History, in his broad and impersonal way, the secular role of the Papacy. He described it as distributing to all, and above all to the little ones, the triple food, material, intellectual, and moral. He traced it back to the Capitol : " Outside it no discoveries worth mentioning have been made, nor," concluded he, " does anyone hope to surpass her discoveries. Jesus Christ founded a new intellectual world. Subsequent discoveries are but like some petty isles adjacent to the great continent of the revealed world."

62 FREDERICK OZANAM

It happened at the same time and place that a confrere, young £lie de Kertanguy, felt himself called to the defence of the Croyant and repeated some of its attacks on the political tyranny of Popes and Kings. Now, Kertanguy was Lamennais' secretary, and was to become his nephew by marriage. Ozanam, in reply, challenged, as delicately as possible, the panegyrist on the ground of the double connection which put him altogether out of court. Kertanguy with drew his unfortunate expressions and declared that he alone was responsible for them.

The Friend of Religion held the Conference responsible for what had been said, and especially the member who was Vice-President and well-known to be the leader. " All that had been said was only a rehash of worked-up, old-time, false charges." Then taking a serious tone : " The danger in present circumstances will be understood. One can appreciate from what has happened, how far young people can be misled in favour of theories and systems. It is to be hoped, that reflection and experience will gradually win them back from that position."

That was indeed a warning as well as a denunciation.

Ozanam was yet unaware of the cause when a letter of abject apology reached him, not from the author of the article, but from one who had unwittingly been the cause of the denunciation, by making an incomplete and biassed account of Ozanam's speech to the editor of The Friend of Religion. He was a young ardent Royalist named Cartier. He was now filled with remorse at the pain which he had caused his dear Ozanam, and he confessed his fault and sought pardon in a three-page letter. The incident reflected honour on Ozanam. His reply to Cartier, which has only recently come to light, is a model of cordiality, generosity, and dignity. The following is an extract :

" Sir, I thank you for the loyalty which you have shown, in drawing my attention to the attack on me in The Friend of Religion. Any imprudence of yours in the matter is more than atoned for by the generous avowal which you have been kind enough to make.

" We are young, we are all likely to make similar mistakes. But we are also Christians and we must forgive and forget an involuntary mistake. Your action on my behalf merits gratitude ; nay more, it commands my regard and wins my friendship".

" Therefore, I promise that I shall not mention this matter in the Conference, even though it grieves me sorely ; or if, for some good

OZANAM'S ANSWER 63

reason I find myself forced to refer to it, I promise you to do so in such a way that I shall not hurt your feelings. It is quite likely that we are not of the same political views. But we shall always be at one on the impregnable maxims of religion and charity. May the relations, which this unpleasant affair has established between us, knit firmly the bonds of Catholic brotherhood, and ensure, for both, happy recollections ! I am, sir, your most obedient servant and affectionate colleague."

Thus could Ozanam pardon.

A letter was enclosed which Cartier was requested to forward to the anonymous ecclesiastic, who was the writer of the article : " There is not anything objectionable in the enclosed, merely an appeal to his kindness and his sense of justice. I hope that you will be good enough to see that it reaches his hands. I am very anxious on the point."

The enclosed reply was to this effect : "You have done me the honour to discuss me, a young and unknown man, in your last issue; you analysed an address which I delivered in a private literary gathering, in which prudence and peace are desired beyond all else. Since you set suffi cient value on our friendly discussions to entertain your good readers with them, you should at least observe a scrupulous accuracy. Yet the summary, which you have made, truncates my thought and ascribes odious and ridiculous expressions to me. It contains also severe condemnation of my views, and attributes to me intentions which I altogether disavow."

Ozanam had been charged with attacking monarchy.

" As a student, I am studying history according to my lights. I do not know if I am right, but I do not make false charges. I am represented as belonging to a school of thought which is hostile to Kings. Being a Christian, I glory in belonging to no other school than that of Truth, which is the Church. But if my sympathy in clines in any direction it is in favour of a wise Monarchy." Ozanam was grieved to see such censure visited by a man of venerable age on some young men, who, though few in number, had found the requisite courage in their faith for a lofty defence of their holy Mother the Church. " But it is not a declaration of political principles which I desire to make here. The day will come perhaps when I shall be entitled to hold these opinions. Meantime I live by my faith, which I have from my God, and by my honour which I have from my parents. You will allow me to defend the one and the other."

64 FREDERICK OZANAM

Pere Picot did not refuse to insert Ozanam's rather lively reply ; its feeling and sincerity touched, but did not convince him.*

However, the sensitive conscience of the young man had not waited for those warnings of June, 1834. Certain occurrences had already startled his sense of responsibility. It had happened that in the course of discussions which had arisen unexpectedly, the champions of Christianity, taken unawares, had been found unequal to their task. They came together at Lamache's, to settle on the steps to be taken to avoid similar surprises. They did not succeed.

Lallier, one of the three delegates, was one day condoling with the elder of the little band, Le Taillandier, a Rouen man, a student in the second year of law, who was of a cold and practical turn of mind. The latter concluded quietly as follows : " I should much prefer some other kind of meeting, one altogether composed of young Christians who, instead of controversy and debate, should devote themselves to the practice of good works." But would not that be to surrender ? He found no reply to that objection on this occasion.

Other signs were not wanting. Ozanam thus refers to them : " When we Catholics, in our relations with unbelievers, deists, followers of Saint Simon, Fourierists, artificers in the re-moulding of society, when we sought to direct their attention to the benefits conferred by Christianity, we were met with the invariable answer, " You are right when you speak of the past, in former times Christianity worked wonders ; but what is it doing for humanity to-day ? Even you, who pride yourself on your Catholicity, what are you doing to show the vitality and efficacy, to prove the truth of your faith ?" Ozanam was much affected by that challenge.

An event happened just at this time that emphasized the urgency of the question of which Lamache gives the following account : " One of the Conferences of History, in these same early months of 1833, was more stormy than usual. Ozanam had to face unjust and bitter attacks. He left the meeting very sad. It was the outrage offered to God and to the Church that saddened him. " How sad it is," said he to us, " to see our holy mother the Church attacked so violently f and Catholicity travestied and maligned !"

*I have great pleasure in referring the reader on this whole matter to the four articles of M. Georges Goyau in the Revue pratique d'Apologttique, Vol. xiv, which are entitled Intellectual Apostohte of young Ozanam. In those articles the popular Catholic writer has made the whole scene live again, the mind, the action, the faith and the great heart of the man, to whom he is related on all sides.

THE GROWTH OF THE IDEA 65

He did not advise the abandonment of the defence of religion. " Let us," said he, " continue to stand in the breach and face the attack. But do you not feel, as I do, the need of some other little society, outside of this militant Conference, which would be composed of religious friends, who would work as well as talk, and who would thus, by showing the vitality of their faith, affirm its truth."

" Looking back over half a century," continues Lamache, " that little scene is still fresh in my memory. I still see Ozanam's eyes filled with sadness, but also with ardour and with fire. I still hear that voice which betrayed the deep emotion of his soul. When the little group broke up, each member carried away in his heart the fiery arrow which Our Lord Jesus had sent forth in the speech of our young comrade." So far Ozanam had only outlined Christian action hi a general way ; but what particular kind of action ? On a subsequent day, when they had come together in somewhat larger numbers in the more commodious rooms of M. Serre in the Petite rue des Gres, the matter was advanced a step further. Ozanam insisted that the Conference of History should carry on, but admitted at the same time that it was a source of mortification. He opened his heart to them as follows : " After a year's working and struggling," he asked, "has any good come of this Conference, to which I have sacrificed my legal studies and by which I have earned for myself the just reproaches of my family. In return for such trials and sacrifices have we made one single conquest for Jesus Christ ?"

Then with humility, but with determination, he added : " If our efforts have not succeeded, is it not because something is lacking to the supernatural efficacy of our speech ?" He thought so, adding: " Yes, one thing is wanting that our apostolate may be blessed by God — works of charity. The blessing of the poor is the blessing of God."

The Abbe Ozanam, the clearest of Frederick's biographers, adds the following note to Lamache's account of the first beginnings of the Conference of Charity : " On leaving there, Frederick found himself with Le Taillandier, who was not less deeply affected. " Well, to be practical, what are we going to do to translate our faith into deeds ?" they asked one another. The answer came from the same Christian heart : " We must do what is most agreeable to God. Therefore, we must do what Our Lord Jesus Christ did when preaching the Gospel. Let us go to the poor."

66 FREDERICK OZANAM

They both acted, and acted at once. That very evening Ozanam and Le Taillandier carried to a poor family of their acquaintance the remaining supply of wood which they had for the last months of winter.

Four years later, Ozanam, in a letter to Le Taillandier, dated the 2 ist August, 1837, recalling those times, added this detail : " Will you not found a Conference at Le Mans ? Will you not give us brothers, you, who were one of our fathers : you who were, well I remember, the first author of our Society \ " It is also true that in another letter Ozanam gives the same title of first founder to M. Bailly, its first president. In the modest opinion of this young man, every one but himself would have been the founder.

Electrified by his suggestion, those present entrusted him with the task of forthwith communicating their charitable plan to M. Bailly, and requesting him to become its president. They could not have applied to anyone better inclined or better qualified.

67

CHAPTER VI.

THE CONFERENCE OF CHARITY. THE SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL.

M. BAILLY, PRESIDENT. — OZANAM, FOUNDER. — THE BEGINNING. — SISTER

ROSALIE. — OZANAM AMONG HIS POOR. — THE FEAST OF CORPUS

CHRISTI AT NANTERRE. — AMPERE AND OZANAM. —

GUSTAVE DE LA NOUE.

M. Bailly had drunk in sentiments of charity in his own home. Devotion to St. Vincent de Paul was a family tradition. His father died at Brias, near Bethune, in Artois, and possessed at the time of his death a large collection of manuscripts belonging to the Saint, which were guarded like a treasure in the home. The name of him who was called by his parents the family Saint was never pronounced save with devotion. His brother, the Abbe Bailly, joined the Vincentian Order. He, himself, deeply imbued with the spirit of the great apostle, entered the service of charity in the world. About the year 1830, M. Bailly had become the right hand man of the Abbe Borderies in the manage ment of the " Society of Good Works," and also of the Abbe Des- genettes, who was at that time parish priest of the Church of the Missions. Madame Bailly shared her husband's devotion to Our Lord Jesus Christ in the person of the poor. At the request of Sister Rosalie, she had undertaken with a friend to visit some poor in their homes. Discouraged by the reception she met with in that work she

68 FREDERICK OZANAM

agreed with her husband that " it was not women's work. Men, and young men, were wanted for it."4

It was while under the influence of that expression of opinion, that M. Bailly received the communication of Ozanam and his friends. It recommended itself strongly to him. "The project of a small private association, altogether devoted to works of charity met with his cordial approval," reports Lallier. As to what works should be adopted, he expressed the opinion that the parish priest of their Parish, St. £tienne du Mont, should be first consulted. The parish priest was the Abbe Ollivier, later Bishop of fivreux. Not having had any previous knowledge of their project he contented himself for the moment with advising the brave young volunteers to teach Catechism to the children of the poor.

But their zeal was altogether directed towards the visitation of the poor. M. Bailly was of the opinion that, if carried out with prudence, it would have on themselves, even more than on those whom they would visit, the most salutary influence. Four members were already certain. Ozanam pointed out two more who were members of the

* Ozanam, completely effacing himself, gives expression to the following charming sentiments of humility and gratitude when speaking of M. Bailly's services, in the Circular- Letter of llth June, 1844, which he, as Vice- President, issued to Conferences on the resignation of the venerable President-General :

" It was M. Bailly who had in 1833 the inspiration to call together a few young men for a charitable purpose under the patronage of St. Vincent de Paul. It was a time when many good men, still timid, stood aside from Associations of good works. Those few young men little expected the marvellous multipli cation which is to be seen to-day. It was he who gave them a place of meeting, counsel, and example ; who taught them how to meet for mutual edification and support ; how to recruit new members, how to help the poor, etc. When our members increased and it became necessary to reduce into form our simple practices, it was M. Bailly who wrote the preliminary drafts, instinct with the maxims of our holy Patron, and which definitely fixed the spirit of the Society. In developing those first considerations in the course of several addresses, and throughout all the activities of a crowded eleven years' presidency, he maintained the unity of the Society during the growth of Conferences in Paris, in the Pro vinces, and in foreign countries. Our gratitude and our regard are unlimited : if we do not give expression to our sentiments here, we refrain from doing so be cause we desire to remain faithful to the tradition of humility which he estab lished. Let us leave to his good works, their obscurity, and to God, the reward ing of a life which was all spent for the good of Christian young men and in the service of the poor of Jesus Christ."

Speaking of the objections urged against M. Bailly's decision to resign, he added: " It was put to him that should he cease to be President of the Society he could never cease to be its founder."

Thus Ozanam's excessive modesty, effacing himself, awards to M. Bailly here and elsewhere, the title of founder. Those who were associated with Ozanam in the foundation were not mistaken. We shall see how very soon they protested unanimously and solemnly to restore fully to him the honour of a distinction which was his.

THE FIRST MEMBERS 69

Conference of History : Felix Clave and Jules Devaux. The former was a son of the head of an institution in the Roule suburbs, in Paris, a recent convert from Simonism, the latter a medical student from Normandy. They both " gladly accepted." That was the corps d'elite : the rest of the band of young Christians stood silent and expectant. The number of members did not exceed eight.* These, of whom one alone Lamache was over 20 years of age, were : Frederick Ozanam, Auguste Le Taillandier, Paul Lamache, Felix Clave, Fran£ois Lallier, Jules Devaux. M. Bailly was at the head. There was one other whose name is not recorded.

It is also worthy of note that " None of the seven or eight* original members of the Society belonged socially to the aristocracy, nor even to the wealthy middle class, whom the July Revolution had brought into power. Their families passed a simple and honourable existence in the liberal professions. Their personality is almost unknown. Lamache, an excellent Professor of a Faculty in the Provinces : Lallier the presiding Justice of the Court in the town of Sens : Le Taillandier, a good and simple man, divided between associations of good works and his business interests in Rouen : Devaux, a Catholic country doctor ; Clave still more obscure. Ozanam alone stands out by his ability, his activities and his place in the intellectual world. Does he not equally surpass them in humility ?"

Sixty years later, Lamache, then over eighty, was asked as to the part played by each at the beginning and replied as follows in the journal Le Monde on the 4th August, 1892 :

" To tell the truth, not one of us, not even Ozanam, who had certainly the greatest initiative and most ardent zeal, could be described as the founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. We were influenced solely by the desire of finding for ourselves, for we were so weak, mutual support in the practice of doing good. After having fought with pen and speech in the Conference of History for the defence of religion, we felt the need of the support, strength and con solation which is to be found in devoting ourselves to some little works for the sake of the love of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is then God and God alone Who has done all. That is exactly why we have every reason to hope that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will live."

*The number was actually seven. See Appendix.

7o FREDERICK OZANAM

All this is indeed true. But it is equally true that Ozanam was the principal instrument whom the Almighty had chosen for this work.

The same Lamache wrote to the Abbe Ozanam on the ist July, 1888 : " I solemnly declare on my word of honour that it was Ozanam who first spoke to me of that Conference : that he was its soul as he had been that of the Conference of Literature, and that, without Ozanam, the Conference of Charity would never have come into being."

Less than three years after Ozanam 's death, fourteen surviving members of the first Conference wished to testify to that fact by confer ring on him, Ad perpetuam rei memoriam, the title of Founder in a written document to which all would affix their signatures. Two of his oldest Lyons friends, therefore, Paul Brae de la Perriere and Chaurand, instituted a searching enquiry into the part played by Ozanam in the foundation. They took evidence and made their report in the follow ing joint Declaration, which appeared in the Lyons Gazette on the 25th March, 1856 :— •

" Unwilling that the absolute accuracy of facts should be obscured, of which we had special means of personal knowledge, and of which we had special op portunities of hearing from the lips of the founders themselves, we testify as follows :

" If it is true that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has been jointly founded by many, it is none the less true that Frederick Ozanam had a preponderating and decisive part in that foundation. It was he who shared with M. Le Tail- landier the idea of an Association, whose members would join the practice of charitable works to faith : it was he who carried by his initiative the majority of the members to adopt that act of devotedness to the poor, none of the others having belonged to any of the previously existing charitable Associations."

" Signed on the 20th March by Messieurs F. Alday J. Arthaud, C. Bietrix, A. Bouchacourt, Chaurand, J. Freney, J. Janmot, A. Lacour, L. Lacuna, P. de la Perriere, E. Rieussec, all members of the first Conference in Paris in the Parish of St. Etienne-du-Mont.

Added on the 20th and 21st March, Messieurs Aim6 Bouvier in Bourg, and Henri Pessonneaux in Paris.

M. Devaux of Triviere (Calvados) states : " I had the honour to be one of the seven or eight first members who formed the nucleus of the Association. It was Professor Ozanam who procured that great happiness for me. The honour of that foundation is his for ever." (Abbe Ozanam, Life of Frederick Ozanam, ch. iv., p. 156. Cf. M. de Lanzac de Laborie, The Founder in the Revue d'apolog6tique, vol. xiv. p. 730.

Much corroborative evidence is forthcoming from the correspondence of contemporaries and fellow-workers. Lallier exclaims : " Ozanam, to whom I owe, after God, almost any merit I possess !" Curnier wrote to Ozanam in 1840 : "It is out of the inspiration of your heart, that the holy association sprang, which may be destined to spread

THE FIRST MEETING 71

over the whole of France as a net-work of charity." Paul de la Perriere wrote : " Our dear Ozanam, through his excessive humility, has contributed his share to mis-stating the history of our foundation. God will take full account of that unselfishness ; but He will certainly scold him for having spoken and written the very reverse of the truth." Can we not adopt the rather solemn conclusion of Pere Lacordaire, who was also a witness : " Ozanam was the St. Peter of that little guest-chamber." ?

The first meeting of the Conference of Charity took place in the month of May, 1833, at eight o'clock in the evening, the verified date of the foundation of the Society. The first and subsequent meetings were held at M. Bailly's rooms in the offices of the Tribune Catholique, 18 Rue de Petit-Bourbon-Saint- Sulpice.

On taking the chair, the venerable President took good care to tell them, " If you really wish to serve the poor and yourselves, direct your charity to moral and spiritual, rather than material, improvement. You will thus sanctify yourselves in the contemplation of Jesus Christ suffering in the person of the poor." It was to His Divine service in His person that they bound themselves in this Society.

Their dispositions were admirably generous and disinterested. A regulation of the late Societe des Bonnes fitudes bound its members to aid one another in