HEROISM OF PRIESTS AND NUNS

New Zealand Tablet, 26 November 1914, Page 11

HEROISM OF PRIESTS AND NUNS

HOW SISTERS DIED AT RHEIMS.

If in certain French localities the civic authorities fled from their post before the German invaders, the same reproach cannot be addressed to the clergy (writes the special Paris correspondent of the, Catholic Times'). At itry le Francois, where the battle of the Marne raged so fiercely, the municipal authorities disappeared when the peril was greatest, but the Abbe Nottin, a parish priest, refused to leave the two hundred inhabitants who remained behind. He proposed to the Germans to become a hostage in their hands, provided the civilians were unharmed, and it was owing to his firmness that the little city escaped total destruction.

Protecting Their Flocks.

■ It has already been mentioned in the Catholic Times how the Bishop of Meaux, Mgr. Marbeau, remained among those of his people who could not leave the threatened city, and how during some terrible days he was the real ‘governor’ of Meaux. He provided for the wounded, organised the distribution of provisions, undertook the police of the city; in fact, in him were vested the responsibilities that the municipal authorities, in their panic, had cast aside. At Chalons, the town, being on the line of fire, was evacuated, but the Bishop remained at his post. So did Mgr. Foucault, in the frontier town of Saint-Die. He was taken prisoner by the Germans and, together with his Vicar-General, was put on the first rank of their forces, in front of his own countrymen.; happily he was neither killed nor wounded. At Peronne, an old city of the ‘department de la Somme,’ the German army occupied the position from the 27th of August to the 14th of September; and if Peronne escaped complete ruin it was owing to the exertions of the cure, Canon Caron. Many houses were destroyed, after having been purposely inundated with petroleum by the soldiers, but, nothing daunted, the Abbe Caron sought the military chiefs, argued, entreated, and succeeded in saving a portion of the town. Another priest of Peronne, the Abbe Victor, was no less devoted, and was taken as a hostage by the enemy.

Killed Whilst Nursing the Wounded.

-*■ The nuns of the Order of the Infant Jesus suffered severely from the bombardment of Rheims five of them were killed by the explosion of shells, and others were grievously wounded while engaged in nursing the wounded. Another community of Rheims, the nuns of the Perpetual Adoration, never ceased their mission of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament during the bombardment. At last, however, a shell set fire to their chapel, their chaplain then took the golden monstrance from the altar and, accompanied by the Sisters, bearing lighted tapers, he carried it to the cellar, where, before a primitive altar, the nuns continued to pray, while the shells and bbmbs made havoc above their shelter.

How Soldier Priests Fight. During the last terrific engagements on the Marne and on the Aisne, many more soldier priests have fallen. ‘ They fight magnificently/ -writes a young captain of hussars from a frontier town, ‘ and are the natural leaders of their comrades.’ They observe to the letter the instructions of their Bishops, who impressed upon them that they were to be first-rat© soldiers, and it is curious to .notice how, without seeking for influence, they acquire it as a matter of course. We hear of a ‘ vicaire ’ from Savoy, the Abbe Duret, of whom a fellow soldier gives a picturesque description. The Abbe is everyone’s friend, the officers count upon his superior education and absolute self-sacrifice, the men are delighted with his pluck. He picks up the wounded under fire, captures German prisoners, brings back cigarettes for the men and maps for the officers, is at everyone’s beck and call, and ‘ ought to be decorated,’ adds the appreciative trooper, from whose letter we gather these details. ' " -

Celebration of Mass at the Front.

The soldier priests say Mass when and where they can; occasionally, when they are quartered near a town, they can use the parish church, or else, in the course of the campaign, they benefit by the portable chapels of the army chaplains. Their discourses, short, energetic, and to the point, are valued by an audience every man of which may. die at any moment. The other day, in a village close to the line of fire, Mass was celebrated by an artilleryman, and an infantry lieutenant in uniform preached the short sermon. No wonder that, as our informant writes, ‘ It can never be forgotten; many soldiers shed tears.’

Work of the Military Chaplains.

The military chaplains who have volunteered to follow our troops to the front, and whose existence is recognised by the Government, are also doing excellent work. They are all of them men whom their age exempts from the obligation of serving in the ranks. Many religious of the Society of Jesus are among them. As stated in the Catholic Times last week, one of these. Father Yerou, well known in Paris as a zealous missionary, died on September 8 from the hardships he underwent at the hands of the enemy.

Deliberate Perpetration of Atrocities.

The worst feature of the German atrocities, full details of which, in due time, will be laid before the judgment of Europe, is the deliberation with which they are perpetrated. They are Jess the brutal explosion of an enemy infuriated by resistance than part of a carefully prepared plan. The German troops who destroyed the Belgian town of Tirlemont arrived here provided with all the necessary implements for carrying out their task. At Senlis we know that deliberately and methodically certain streets were fired; at Peronne the Jxouses were inundated with petroleum before being set alight. So,, in the case of Pere Yerou, he was not struck in the heat of the battle, but done to death, while unarmed and defenceless, a prisoner in the enemy’s hands. 1

Eloquent Paris Preacher.

I have told my readers of the remarkable discourses in which, every Sunday during the war, Father Sertillange, at the Madeleine, keeps up the mental attitude and aspirations of the people of Paris. Speaking to a closely-packed audience, he referred to the destruction of Rheims Cathedral. ‘ The voices of its bells, he said, ‘ reminded us of our history during fifteen hundred years,’ and he went on to show how, rising above the stricken city, the great Cathedral continued its silent a*nd solemn prayer, until the enemy’s sacrilegious fury rained destruction on the mighty edifice,. so closely linked with the past glory of France. Let me add that it was, in great measure, to the devotedness of a Rheims priest, the Abbe Landrieux, that many of the German wounded who had been received within the Cathedral owed their lives. He considered that the act of the German troops who were, even then, shelling the basilica did not exempt him from doing his best for their helpless prisoners, Germans though they were, and, at the risk of his life, he carried many of them to a place of safety.