SOLDIER PRIESTS

New Zealand Tablet, 20 November 1913, Page 17

SOLDIER PRIESTS

Under the above heading a writer in the Paris Univers gives a list of some of the very many valiant French soldiers who have exchanged the uniform for the cassock 'to continue under the soutane,' as the writer expresses it, ' the patriotic work for France which they had begun under the uniform.' And, first of all, the writer recalls ' that under the Second Empire there was at the head of the See of Agen a prelate who bore a noble name—the Count de Levezou de Vezins. Before studying for the priesthood, Monsignor de Vezins had been a colonel of a regiment of cuirassiers. He had been a married man, and heaven had blessed his union with two brave and pious sons, the younger of whom made the campaign of 1870 as lieutenant of the 93rd Infantry under Canrobert. At the battle of Rezonville where the regiment was literally decimated, this young officer was fatally wounded. Left bleeding on the field of battle, he was not found by his comrades until the following day, just as he was about to breathe his last. The other son of Monsignor de Vezins was an artillery officer, and quitted the service as a lieutenant-colonel. He did brilliant service in Mexico. Under the walls of Puebla, directing the fire of his battery, he was grievously wounded. - Monsignor Oury, who was for a long time Archbishop of Algiers, was a soldier before becoming a priest, and, curiously enough, his soldierly career began at Algiers, the very place he later ruled as Archbishop. Monsignor Lamoureux was an officer before he was a Bishop. As such he distinguished himself in 1870 recruiting and organising a corps of volunteers. Monsignor de Logonnes, Bishop of Rodez, went through the war of 1870 in the Army of the East as a captain. Monsignor Augouard, the indefatigable VicarApostolic of the Congo, fought in the same war in the Zouaves of Charette. At Nice there lives at present a most respected pastor who, not so long ago, was one of the most distinguished of the higher officers of the French Army. Abbe Crepeaux was received at St. Cyr (the West Point of France) when he was hardly seventeen, the year before the Franco-Prussian War. At the battle of Champigny, where his regiment had 500 killed of wounded, of which twenty were officers, the young lieutenant received a grievous wound. A little while after he received with his promotion the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Captain at twentytree, major at thirty-five, M. Crepeaux was made lieu-tenant-colonel at forty-two.. At the moment of his promotion to colonel he resigned his commission in order to study for the priesthood. Three years ago, a most distinguished officer, Colonel de Courson de Villeneuve, left the service and a few months later was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Rheims. Abbe Perrin, who fills to-day the office of vicar of the Cathedral of Bezancon, fought valiantly in 1870 in the Corps of Colonel Keller. At the end of the war he was quartermaster-sergeant. A few months later, he left to study for Holy Orders. Dom du Bourg graduated from St. Cyr in 1862 in the cavalry. His wife dying, he provided for his children, gave up the army, and became a Benedictine.

- The late Father do Bange, S.J., son of a celebrated colonel of artillery, was a brilliant pupil of St. Cyr before entering religion. • Recently Captain Jordan, of the infantry, , and Lieutenant Rodie, of the colonial artillery, left the army to study for the priesthood. Captain Jordan was a St, Cyr man. In 1900, in the campaign in China against the Boxers, he, although grievously wounded, determined „to remain at the head of his men, and his bravery on that occasion won the Cross of the Legion •of Honor, conferred on him a few days later.