THE REV. THOMAS BURKE, O.P.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 376, 2 July 1880, Page 11

THE REV. THOMAS BURKE, O.P.

(From the Freeman of Muy 1.) Yestebday, the feast and fifth centenary of St. Catherine of Sienna, was celebrated with the usual solemnity in the Church of St. Saviour, Lower Dominick street, a solemn Triduum preparatory to the feast having been observed during the week. The announcement that that distinguished member of the order and prince of Irish preachers, Father Thomas Burke, 0.P., whose eloquent tongue has been so long silent in consequence of his severe and protracted illness, was to preach the sermon on the occasion, bad the effect, as might have been expected, of filling the church to overflowing with a congregation largely representative of the wealth and the intelligence of the city of Dublin. "We arc happy to say that the great Dominican, of whose iinrivalled genius and power as a pulpit orator his follow-countrymen at home and abroad are so justly proud, is almost himself again. He looks as strons and ns capable of unlimited endurance as ever. His fine manly voice with its rich and racy Connaugbt brogue, is every whit as powerful and flexible as ever, his tall muscular figure every whit as commanding, and his incomparable s\\ie of delivery as forcible and impressive. That his recovery may prove complete and peimanent, and that he may be spared to the Church for many a long year to come in the noble fulfilment of his important mission, will be the prayer and the aspiration, we. feel assured, of the bulk of those who read these lines. High Mass, ns on the previous days during the Triduum. was commenced at 11 o'clock, accompanied by sacred music appropiiate. to the occasion, and at its conclusion, Father Burke- , wearing the habit of his order, which seems rather to increase his stalwart proportions, entered the pulpit and pronounced an eloquent and interesting panegyric on the life and labours and superhuman achievements of that remarkable woman ' of God. St. Catherine of Sienna, who has always been regarded as one of the especial glories of the Dominican older. He spoke with the earnestness and the ardour of n devoted son. and in glowing and ] animated language set forth as in a picture the austerities and morti- j fication of her early life, the struggle* and tjials through which she had to pass, and finally the triumphant issue which crowned her supernatural efforts. Among the many blessings and favours of Almighty God to His saints were those that their memory should be remembered, that their name should never be forgotten, that their glory should never perish on this earth. To attain to this was the highest ambition of man in this world. How few there were who attained to this was attested by the fact that the highest and the greatest names in history, even for six thousand years of the world's history, were easily counted. To live not merely as a remem- j hrance but as a living body — to live not only as a memory but in the hearts of the people — this highest immortality was reserved for the saints of God. Their name and their glory, and their glorious deeds, never pale : their names shall live for generations and generations. They fled from the notice of men ; they tried to rid themselves from the gaze of the world ; thej r kept the secret of their sanctity and their grace most jealously. They seemed in no manner to court or countenance the notice of men, much less their admiration. They fled from the world. The things that men sought they gave up and renounced. The things that gave pleasure to the children of their age gave them but pain, and yet, strange to say, this very modesty and retirement of disposition wrought the most wonderful influence upon the world, purified society, and conferred the most lasting blessings upon all men. Dying, the saints left behind them an immortal name. They gained immortality by dying daily. They lived in fame, because they fled from fame. How strange a way to achieve undying immortality. A thoroughly singular example of* this they had to consider that day. On the 29th of April 1380. five hundred years ago to a day, Catherine of Sienna died at Home. She was a purely illiterate woman, without any phase of remarkable beauty, with scarcely any perceptible element of merely human power or accomplishment, and only enriched with the grace and the glory which Christ Himself had given her : and yet to-day, after five hundred years had elapsed, her name was in the minds and on the lips of hundreds of millions of the faithful of the Catholic Church. Loving hearts by the thousand contemplated her. Curious and pious minds examined her life thai they might conform their own lives to that high standard. We would find it our advantage to study somewhat a life which was enriched by so much grace, and rewarded with so much glary : but we could "not enter into the life nor appreciate the character of this wonderful saintly woman, unless we contemplate the circumstances of the age in which she lived. He confessed that nowhere in the records of history was there so dark or so terrible a page as that which recorded the history of Italy at that very time. The whole country was broken up into small, independent, warlike, and turbulent republics, and distracted by the sanguinary feuds of dukes and princes. There was no security for life and property. In addition to these public evils there was another evil which affected the social and domestic life, and that was the spirit of faction. Disunion came in amongst the people, dividing every family, every village, eveiy c'y, into opposite cnnips. They fought amongst themselves with the bitterest detei ruination and ciuclty. The father was slain by his own f-on, accoidiiig as they embraced different factions. There was not a spot of land that was not stained with blood. But in adelition 1o all these evils that sprang from the perversity anel wickeaness of man heaven was angry. A terrible famine came upon the land, and was succeedeel by plague and pestilences which carried off the people in 'thousands. But there was another evil which wa>> counted by many the greatest of all. The Pope was no longer in Rome. Forty years before, the Papal See had been removed from the Eternal City, and for seventy years the Pope was exiled in Avigron until at last Catheiine of Sienna brought him back in tiiumph. The distinguished preacher told the entire story of St. CAtheiinc's eventful life from the day on which, when six yeais of age, by a perpetual vow, she consecrated her virginity to God : described the domestic persecutions to which she was subjected, her

spiritual trials, her miraculous conversions, her public preaching among the rebellious people of Florence and neighbouring cities, the grand success of her divinely directed mission, and her happy death. He referred in conclusion to the glorious title of Protectress of the Holy See, conferred upon her by the illustrious Pontiff Pius the Ninth, alluded to the present occupation of the Eternal City by hungry wretches and usurpers who cursed the hour *.hat they had left Florence, mid repressed his confident belief that the day would come — not, perhaps, iv our generation — when, perhaps, another Catheriue of Sienna would arise, brine back the Pope to his throne in tke Vatican, and bring Rome to her knees. The sacred function concluded with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.