ANOTHER LETTER FROM THE " NUN OF KENMARE."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 397, 19 November 1880, Page 19

ANOTHER LETTER FROM THE " NUN OF KENMARE."

From a letter of Sister Mary Francis Clare, addressed to the London Tablet, we take the following passages :—: —

The second cure of which C promised to give your readers an account, and which can scarcely fail to be called miraculous, is that of a young girl living always in the parish of Tuosist. This parish is the next parish to Konmare. I have also personal knowledge of the facts of this case, and the account was first gi/en to me by the parish priest, the Rev. P. Barrett.

Johanna Shea is now about twenty* six years of age ; for the last ten years she has been unable to leave her bed, or even to move across the floor without the help of two persons, as her legs and feet were quite powerless. She was given up by the doctor some years since, and had no medical attendance, but lay a helpless cripple in her bed, and was lifted out for an hour by two persons and put sitting up.

In the month of June Mr. Michael Owens, a member of the Irish constabulary, who has given me full permission to use his name, visited her father when doing the agricultural returns. He was moved with compassion for the poor sickly girl, and asked why they did not take her to Knock. They replied that they could not do so, as it would require two persons to go with her, and they were too poor to go to the expense. Mr. Owens then said he would get some of the cement, as his father lives at Knock. They accepted his offer most thankfully, aud, to his surprise, when he went home he found letters with some cement which had been sent to him quite unexpectedly.

In the meantime Johanna Shea's brother went to the priest to ask him to come and hear her confession. She had been in the habit of receiving the sacraments regularly and constantly in bed, bnt under the circumstances the priest refused to go. Bat it is not easy to quench Irish faith, so Johanna made the beet preparation she could, and began a JNovena. The second day she called out to her brother, who was in the cabin, to bring her clothes — that she was cured. The cure was as sudden as it was complete. She rose at once, dressed herself without help, and knelt down and said the Rosary. While I live I shall never forget the graphic description of the scene which her brother gave me. He is a noble specimen of the Irish peasant. Even as he spoke to me he threw himself on his knees and lifted his hands to heaven to thank God again and again, and the " Blessed Mother of God," who had been "so thankful " (kind and good) to his poor sister, and told me how he fell on hands and face in utter amazement of joy and thanksgiving as he saw her walk along.

My friend the policeman wrote to me that he saw her a few days ago walking through the fields " quite strong and cheerful."

I asked her brother how they had got through this terrible Winter and Spring, and he told me tbat they had been in great want ; but he would not have cared only for this girl and their old infirm father, for whom they sorely wanted the only luxury they ever had — a little drop of milk. I asked why he had not come to us for help, when he must have known we had it to give. But he said, " Well, sister, tbank you all the same, but we have our bit of pride, and we were not starving, and other poor creatures were." The cures worked by a visit to Knock and elsewhere by the cement are so well known that even Protestants are not without availing themselves of the help of the ever Blessed Mother of God. And I cannot but remark tbat the whole tone of Irish Protestants on the subject of Knock has been most respectful, and a most happy contrast to the way in which such manifestations of the power of God have been received elsewhere. As a proof of this I will add that a Protestant lady, the wife of a member of Parliament (not Irish), came here to see me lately, and told me that she had known of so many cures that she was anxious to take one of her children there. I may add also that, in a case of an extraordinary cure of a poor man, of which I have personal knowledge, he went to call on his landlord, a Protestant, and that gentleman positively refused to see him again and again, so well did he know that a miracle had been worked, and so afraid was he tbat he could not deny it if he saw it with his own eyes. Surely when the cures at Knock are such that the Archbishop of Tuam has appointed an ecclesiastical commission to inquire into them, there must be grave reason to believe that the apparitions true true, and surely the opposition of Protestants in such a case is not the one great fact to' be considered. Do Protestants believe in Lourdes now more than they did when our Lady first appeared to Bernardette 1 Is the evidence for the truth of the apparition at Lourdes any more satisfactory to the " advanced men of science," or do Protestant men of science think the Church any the wiser when it " favours such exhibitions as those at Lourdes ?" Perhaps if Catholics in France had received the favour which the Mother of God bestowed upon them at Lourdes with more faith and fervour, and thought more of God's grace and love in it than of the opinions of Protestant men of science, that France would not be as it is to-day. A poor farmer's wife went from here to Knock a fortnight since with her boy born deaf and dumb. " Neighbours " helped to pay her expenses, and we made up the rest. The boy partially obtained his hearing. On her return she told me she believed she had seen the eyes of our Lady move, but she made nothing of it. It so happened that I heard of the movement of our Lady's eyes being seen the Bame day by a priest.

A correspondent of the Express writes :—": — " It is the opinion of most Basutos that they cannot carry on war for long, as they are afraid of starvation ; the harvest was not the best ; all they could spare has been sold. They, in fact, did not reckon upon war and have thus not stowed away a large quantity of grain. Ploughed they have neither, to a great extent, partly on account of the drought, partly on account of the excitement to which the disarmament question brought them. Their ploughing oxen they have exchanged for horses, guns and ammunition, and thus the cultivation of land has been neglected."

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