ST. ANNE DE BEAUPRE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 1, 3 October 1890, Page 5

ST. ANNE DE BEAUPRE.

(J. Mac Donald Oxlut, a Protestant, in the New York Freeman's Journal.) The vast and wonderful church whose cantre is fixed in the Sternal City upon the B«ven Hi'ls, but whose circumference embraces the utmost ends of the earth, has no more faithful, fervent and docile daughter than the Canadian Province of Quebec. From the earliest dty s of French occupation the cross had gone side by side with the sword (or even preceded it) in the conquest of the country, and Church and State had been so inextricably intermingled that it is little wonder, seeing bow comparatively slight are the changes the centuries have wrought, if the liabitant of our day, like the colonist of Champlain's, Bcarce recognises in them two distinct fountains of authority. The transference of New France to the British Crown bat slightly diminished the power and influence of the Church. So universal, deep-seated, and ardent are tbe feelings borne toward her by the vast bulk of the inhabitants of Qaebec, that were His Holiness to be driven out from tho Vaticau, Avignoa being no longer available, he could hardly bopa to find a more favourable place wherein to re-establish bis spiritual throne than in this portion of the Canadian Dominion. The traveller whose happy lot it is to take a summer voyage upon the lower St. Lawrence cannot fail to be struck by a feature that distinguishes the landscape all the way from Montreal, where this glorious river narrows to quite commonplace proportions, to Grand Metis, where itspreads out until the farther bank is lost ia azure haze ; and that is the many little groups of white-walled, red-roofed cottages gathered so close around a great stone church as to suggest irresistibly the idea of a hen brooding over her callow fledglings. Big as the church appears, it is not a whit too commodious on the Sundays and Saints' days, when the worshippers gather from far and near. * * * * # It is estimated that no less than one hundred thousand pilgrims seek the gracious office of St. Anne every year. Prom north, sooth, east, and west, from all parts of the United States, as well as from the Canadian Provinces, the halt, maimed, blind, and dumb, ay, and those whose troubles lie deeper than the mere miseries of tbe flesh, gather in pathetic crowds, at the sight of which one is strangely stirred, not only with natural sympathy for their sufferings, but because of the suggestion of those days when " they brought nnto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments." Throughout the long day tbe church is crowded with relays of worshippers, the most of whom are there in a spirit of unquestioning faith and trustful expectation, although the übiquitous tourist who has come to see, if not to scoff, may often be observed gazing about him with a half-puzzled, half-p:tying air. For such there are many interesting objects in the church beside the devout eongregatiun. Over the chief altar is a famous painting by Lebrun, representing two pilgrims, one of either sex, kneeling in supplication at St. Anne's feet. Above the side dc ors hang much less artistic ex veto representations of nurvellous escapes from "perils by waters " ; at tbe side altars are other paintings by tbe Franciscan monk Lefrangoie, who laid down his brush so far back as 1685. But towering high above the rest, and commanding attention not only by their imposing appearance but by their deep Buggestiveness, stand two pyramids of st ; cks and crutches, rising tier above tier, and containing hundreds of proofs that bt. Anne's intercession had availed for the happy ones who, by visiting her shiine, were enabled to cast aside these artificial and unnatural aids to locomotion. In 1662, as Abbe Casgrain tells us, a young man named Nicholas Drouin, from the parish of Chateau Richer, who was tormented with a very grievous form of epilepsy, obtained complete and permanent relief as the result of a neuvaine or nine days' Mass at St. Anne. Two years later, one Marguerite Bird, whose leg had been badly broken, on beiog carried to the sacred spot, was there made whole and strong again, Elie Godin, brought almost to the grave with an incurable dropsy, while receiving the Blessed Eucharist felt his sickness depart from him, and sprang up shoutiog "I am healed." To Jean Adam was the precious privilege of sight restored after many years' darkness. In 1841 Dame Genevieve Boudrault, having long endured the horrors of epilepsy and convulsions, had herself borne to tbe shrine, and there, whilst praying before the main altar, the ineffable sensation of returning health stole sweetly upon her, and ehe went forth praising God for her deliverance. A few years ago, a lad of sixteen, named Fiset, from Springfield, Massachusetts, came to Ste. Anne. For seven years his whole body had been covered with horrible sores which defied all efforts to heal them. Moreover, his right leg was so distorted that be could not move without crutches. Kneeling before tbe altar, he was permitted not only to kiss the saint's relic, but to press it to his breast, Instantly an extraordinary delicious tremor thrilled through his frame. A kind of ecstacy seized upon him, and in that supreme moment his sores began to heal, bis crooked limb straightened out, and he went away with joyful steps, leaving his crutches at the altar. A month later a young girl from Glen's Falls, New York, received her sight whilst standing, in rapt adoration, before the statue of Ste. Anne, whither she had been led by sympathising friends.

The following incident I have upon the testimony of one of the most intelligent and well-informed French Canadians I have ever met, who witnessed it with hiß own eyes, and related it to me. Six years ago a well-to-do farmer, living about ten miles above Quebec, vibo had been dumb, but not deaf, from his birth, determined to try if Ste. Ance would vouchsafe him relief. .Accordingly, bare-footed, bare-headed, coatless and fasting, he walked the entire distance to her shrine. Fainting but full of faith, he wrote out his confession upon the slate he always carried, attended Mass, received the Communion, and then lay down to rest, Next morning he was one of the

nisi et the altar. The church wu crowded with referent worshipers. Suddenly the servioe wm broken in upon by]* strange, half-articulate about that startled every one. All eyes were turned towardß tbe ■pot whence it came, and there, with countenance whose exoltant brightness transcended all expression, stood tha mute, a ante no longer. giving rent to his emotions in joyful ejaculations that filled the edifice. Thenceforward ha spoke freely, and with tears streaming r?own his cheeks, said to my informant : " Ah, sir, won't my boys be glad to hew my voice 1 " With these and a hundred like marvels to kindle and sustain their faith, one can readily conceive with what sincerity the myriad pilgrimi. scorning the logic of unimpressionable rationalism, chant their canticles in honour of the patron saint, the pood Ste. Anne. (From the Toronto Weekly Catholic Review.) Pilgrimages to the shrine of the " good St. Anne " at Beaupre are tbe order of the day. Never was the number so great ; and it is daily increasing. Two of the Richelieu and Ontario Company's steamers scarcely suffice to meet the demands of pilgrims. Not only from Montreal, St. Hyacinth, and dioceses of Queb c, but from New England and Middle States, organised pilgrimages set forth joined in by many from all parts of the North American Continent, What is the attraction at the bumble and obscure village of St. Anne ? Why this yearly aod daily increasing conflux of strangers, having amongst them so many crippled and maimed and bandaged— the blind, tbe pale, and tbe weak— that it can be compared only to the crowds which of yore flocked to the shore of Geneeareth where stood One Who cured every langor and whose fame went abroad into the whole country I

Now it takes a journal to keep record of the wonders of St Anne de Beaupre. To deny facts that take place in the light of day, in presence of churchfuls and boatfuls of spectators of every cUss and condition of life, that are described in detail and published in a hundred newspapers, is an insult not only to the intelligence, but to the senses of a whole continent. The eye witnesses were not only pilgrim crowds but all who had known and attended the cases before and after the alleged cures. Take the three cures reported last week by the Montreal Star and Gazette, as well as the whole French Press : "Le Conrterdn Canada narrates several recent miracles which occurred at the shrine of Ste. Anne de Beaupre recently. Among them are Miss Elvina Protean, cousin of Rev. Abb 6 Lalberte, of the Grand Seminary, who is said to have been in bed two years at the Hotel Dieu with incurable paralysis of the lower limbs, and who, while praying before the relics of Ste. Anne, suddenly found the pains accompanying her disease vanish and such a strength pass to her limbs that she threw away her crutches, disengaged herself from her attendant, who held her up, clapped her hands in joy, and stood up all by herself, and walked back to her pew alone.,' " Another case was that of Auguste Plessis dit Beiair, of 108 Wolfe street, a twelve year-old boy, who suffered from a nervous complaint, which caused his arms to shake in such a manner that he could not even serve himself at table. On his return from the shrine says the article, the boy had lost every trsce of the disease, and tested the strength of his arms by lifting up chairs, threading neeJles and similar feats. The third case is that of Stanislaus Laf ranee, the ihirteen-year-old; son of Mr. J. B. Lafrance. of 303 Maisonneuve street, who, it is said, for two years could not use bis left leg, which had become shorter and powerless from inflammatory rheumaism. At the Chnrch of St. Anne de Beaupie. he walked up to the Communion table with the aid of his own crutches, and returned to his seat without them."

To question the facts were to insult not only the intelligence, but the eyes of all Montreal. \s to the explanation, some may attribute the cures to tbe power of faith, and its influence over the nerves. It is notorious that the patients apcribe their cures not to their faith but invariably, and with one mouth, to the intercession of good Bte. Anne. It is clear that effects so marvellous in tbemselv^ and the manner in which they have been brought about can be referred only to a personal power above nature and nature's laws, who can act independently of them and set them aside at Hiß pleasure because He has established them and is Lord over them. He can and does answer the piayers of his children, and honours those who have on earth led lives ot holiness.

Not many summers back a Protesant clergyman of New York incredulous about the miracles of Lcurdes, took a journey to the favoured spot to see and investigate for himself. Having witnessed a number of striking facts be admitted in the first place their truth and reality]; secondly, their divine and supernatural origin ; thirdly, tbe mystery of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin with which they were inseparably connected ; and fourthly, the truth and divinity of the Roman Catholic Church in which alone miracles were wrought and the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin taught and proposed.

Pilgrimages to St. Anne are approve I by the highest ecclesiastical authority. At Bte. Anne's, it is indisputable that the blind see. and the dumb speak and the lame walk. So it was when Marie de l'lncarnation wrote in the seventeenth century, so it is to-day. Catholics believe that miracles can be performed and are performed to day, as in the times of the Apostles. Men pf enlightenment are most firmly convinced of this truth, because they can find no reason for tbinkibg otherwise, while to the common mind it comes by a species of intuition. Faith gives to the most lowly a certain spirituality, so tfiat it is surprising sometimes to observe bow clear the perception, and bow exact tbe distinctions made, even by the most ignorant, in supernatural things. Therefore, we repeat, that all are united in honouring Ste. Anne, well aware that in so doing, they do not deiogate from the honour due to God, but rather increase it.

Lord Salisbury, replying to the Rev. Jacob Primmer, of Dun termline, says there is no compact with the Pope to alter the laws of Malta to make mixed marriages invalid, and no proposal has been made to hand over tbe Blaptyre Mission Station in Africa to Portugal.