Infant Jesus Parish Morley
Under the care of the Discalced Carmelite Friars
Under the care of the Discalced Carmelite Friars
In the past few years four major events have taken place in the Archdiocese of Perth. The first in order was the Reopening and Blessing of St. Mary`s Cathedral in December 2009. The second milestone was the Reinterment of the remains of Co. Cavan-born Bishop John Brady on August 2nd 2011. It was the feast of a Salesian Blessed of whom more later, something of significance in view of the latest developments. The third event was the acceptance by Pope Benedict XV1 of the retirement of Archbishop Barry Hickey on February 20th 2012 after 21 years at the helm of the Archdiocese. Fourthly and finally the newly refurbished Cathedral , brainchild of the former Archbishop, hosted the Installation of Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB , a Salesian, on March 21st 2012.
When I came to live in the Carmelite Priory at Infant Jesus Church Morley in 2005, St. Mary`s Cathedral presented a shabby aspect indeed. It was the poor relation of the other Metropolitan Cathedrals known to me. All that changed however when Archbishop Hickey launched a major restoration to designs by Architect Peter Quinn.
As work proceeded the question arose as to how to arrange for the suitable reinterment of the remains of Perth`s two early Bishops who had been buried under the floor of the old Cathedral and those of their three successors who were buried in Karakatta Cemetery. However another question remained open – where to find the grave of Perth`s first Bishop, controversial figure John Brady. After some neat detective work , Bishop Brady`s grave was traced to a cemetery in a small but significant spa town in the South of France, called Amelie-les-Bains. Amusingly a plaque to Brady in the town attributed the place of his bishopric as `Noveau Irlande` rather than `Noveau Hollande` as Australia was known until 1824!
A team headed by Fr. Robert Cross and Odhran O`Brien made plans for the exhumation of the remains , provided some had survived , and returning them to Perth to be laid to rest with his successors, with the exception of Archbishop Clune, a Redemptorist, in the crypt of the Cathedral.
A few years ago I wrote an article for `The Record` to mark the 150 year anniversary of the apparitions at Lourdes also in the South of France. I told the story of how a Carmelite priest, German born Hermann Cohen, a former famous musician, had met and encouraged the young Bernadette Soubirous when many priests and various experts treated her with utter scepticism. She remained loyal to him for the rest of her short life. He had the distinction of being the first priest to lead a procession to the Grotto, bearing candles and singing the Salve Regina.(Ten years later he was cured of a serious eye disease after bathing his eyes in the spring, a cure recorded in an early edition of the Annals of Lourdes.)
Both Bishop Brady and Hermann Cohen died in 1871 soon after Vatican Council 1 ; the Franco-Prussian war had abruptly ended the council. Brady had taken part in the Council as Bishop of Perth, though had not been allowed to set foot there for many years .The war had directly contributed to Cohen`s untimely death.
In this article I will be revisiting France to describe the influence of Hermann Cohen on two future saints, one, like our new Archbishop , a Salesian and the other a Carmelite like Cohen and myself. We also trace the steps of all three to the South of France where Bishop Brady died.
So the Installation of Archbishop Costelloe SDB puts the focus firmly on the Salesian family of St. John Bosco, where it will remain for years to come. I have now introduced Bishop Brady and Hermann Cohen both of whom knew France well. Brady had studied for the priesthood in Paris where Hermann Cohen some years later led a successful if dissolute life as a musical prodigy. Both were also very familiar with the South of France where they ministered as priests, at least briefly in Brady`s case. The other two making up the quartet are Blessed Auguste Czartoryski SDB and St. Raphael Kalinowski OCD. The two latter were frequent visitors to the Spa centres there because of Czartoryski`s tubercular condition . Both came from a Polish background, though neither was born in Poland; Kalinowski came from a Polish-Lithuanian family in Wilno or Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, Czartoryski was born in exile in Paris.
Remarkably none of the four remain in the same place where they were buried; Kalinowski died in Czerna , near Krakow but was later transferred to Wadowice, birthplace of Karol Wojtyla the future Pope. Czartoryski died in Alassio ,Italy and at some point was taken back to Prezmysl, Poland near his ancestral home where the Salesians had made a foundation.. The remains of Hermann Cohen were disinterred twice – first from the bombed out Church of St. Hedwig in Berlin and reinterred in the municipal cemetery . Then only a few years ago Cohen remains were exhumed from there and returned to his Carmelite Novitiate chapel in Le Broussey near Bordeaux in France , following a routine exactly the same as happened in the case of Bishop Brady.
A dedicated life.
After neglecting the practice of his faith as a young man Raphael Kalinowski later reconnected with his strong Polish tradition of Catholicism from which he never looked back. Around the same time he got caught up, somewhat unwillingly, in the final insurrection of Poland against its Russian overlords in 1863. Arrested and tried, he was condemned to death but the sentence was commuted due to his connections with the nobility who pleaded his cause .The sentence was then commuted to ten years hard labour in Siberia together with thousands of other real or suspected rebels. Kalinowski grew into an amazingly devout Christian life in exile, becoming a model of charity , prayer and service to his fellow exiles. As an Irishman, Bishop Brady shared with Kalinowski the experience of belonging to countries which had been persecuted for their faith for centuries by an oppressor. Kalinowski was released from exile in 1874.
Two future saints.
Auguste Czartoryski was born into the aristocratic Polish family who had taken refuge in Paris after an earlier failed insurrection in 1830.His grandfather Adam was acknowledged as `the Polish king in exile` and in fact they set up a kind of government in exile at the Hotel Lambert, a stately home and reckoned the finest residence in Paris, now owned by a Qatari prince who bought it from the Rothschild family.
At this time (1874) Prince Ladislaus Czartoryski , was head of the family .He had trawled the universities of Europe for a suitable tutor for the heir apparent to the Polish throne. From what he had heard about him, he considered that Kalinowski met his requirements. Indeed other noble families had been vying for his services but he declined , knowing that he could pursue a religious vocation more easily in Austria from a base in Paris. Religious life was still banned in Poland.
On returning from exile in Siberia to Krakow, after all arrangements had been made, he set out for Paris by train, first visiting the Czartoryski family residence in Sieniawa , the remaining Polish property of Prince Adam Czartoryski not confiscated after the uprising of 1830. He arrived there on September 20th , 1874, and met Prince Ladislaus and his son and pupil to be, Prince Auguste , who was known by the diminutive `Gucio` in the family.
Gucio`s mother Princess Amparo, first wife of Ladislaus Czartoryski was a friend of Hermann Cohen. She died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty and she passed the disease on to her son Auguste who was born on 12th August 1858 . He was only six years of age at the time of her death. She was a daughter of Queen Christina of Spain and a stepsister of Queen Isabella 11 . (Of interest to our story too is the fact that Isabella 11 was a benefactor of the Salvado Brothers in New Norcia, who had been recruited for Perth by Bishop Brady. In the museum there you will find her gift of an English-made Grandfather Clock presented to Santos Salvado in 1857. She probably provided other goods also and the Salvados imported a lot of essential supplies from Spain.)
When they met, Kalinowski immediately noticed that the boy Auguste was consumptive.. With a keen eye for observing such traits in students, Kalinowski saw a restless and defiant streak in the young prince. He was not surprised at this of course; he realized he had just landed there as a complete stranger and he was going to undertake the training of the grandson of the Queen of Spain and the stepson of Princess Margaret, herself the daughter of the King of France! Here in this princely household, Kalinowski felt uneasy for a different reason. He writes in his Memoirs: ` As for myself , I felt tired and it took the special help of grace not to cancel the undertaking I had made. It seemed to me also that Prince Ladislaus was not all that happy with me and didn’t see in me the qualities he wished for , and believed to be necessary , in a person in charge of his son.In fact I was beginning to lose confidence in my own ability.I could see that the young prince had great potential, that he had an developed an intelligent and critical spirit amazing for his age. Would I be able to help him attain the perfection of which he was capable? Moreover, his father gave me no instruction as to how he should be trained and no one informed me precisely what my job would be in Paris.`
But he doesn’t flinch from the challenge and wonders aloud:` Who knows if my work may not produce some fruit?` The answer to this is a resounding `yes`, seeing that his protégé is now well on the way to sainthood.
On 23rd October 1874 Raphael Kalinowski finally reached Paris and, somewhat late in the day, was amiably welcomed by Princess Margaret at the Hotel Lambert. If you take the Bateau Rouge from the Eiffel Tower and cruise down the Seine you will get a good view of this mansion. Bought from the Czartoryskis by the Rothchild family it now belongs to a Qatari prince. In describing the guests who were coming and going we are reminded that European royalty (and further afield) are all interrelated, whatever the country in question. Princess Margaret`s father was the Duke of Nemours of the House of Orleans. Her grandparents were King Louis-Philippe and Queen Marie Amelie, after whom the town which figured in Bishop Brady`s death is named or better , renamed from the original Arles-les-Bains. A most charitable lady she had endowed a military hospital there for veteran soldiers who could avail of the health spas in the town.
Here again we have link between Cohen and Kalinowski. We find that while widowed and exiled in Clarendon House, Kensington, London, (the exiled King Louis-Philippe had died previously) Hermann Cohen , who at that time had brought the Carmelites back to England, and lived nearby , became her chaplain until her death in 1866. He had a high regard for her as a devout Catholic. She embroidered a chasuble for the new Carmelite Church which Herman built and also donated an illuminated Missal to the church. Both of these items were lost when the Church was destroyed by an incendiary bomb in World War 11. Kalinowski sent his sister a copy of Queen Amelie`s Life and Letters.
And the catalogue of royal connections goes on. Princess Margaret`s brother was the Duke of Alencon, the birthplace of St. Therese of Lisieux. He was married to the daughter of the King of Bavaria. Another visitor on one occasion , Kalinowski tells us, was Prince Ernest Cobourg-Gotha, born in the magnificent Windsor Castle in England , one of the residences of Queen Elizabeth 11, and so he was related to the British Royal family.
Apart from royal visitors there was no shortage of other celebrities visiting the Hotel Lambert. Artists and musicians were frequent visitors, Delacroix was one, and composers Berlioz, Liszt and Polish composer Chopin was a regular also and wrote a `Polonaise` for a Ball held in the mansion. Ladislaus` sister Marcellina was an outstanding student of Chopin and as a concert pianist , one of the best interpreters of his music on the international stage. Hermann Cohen`s reputation as a musician and Liszt`s best student also ensured he had a welcome there.
The grand ambience of a Parisian stately home seems a far cry from saltmaking in Usole, Siberia but Kalinowski`s interior life was all of a piece with his previous existence. Prayer and contemplation continued to dominate his life.
He certainly grew enormously in his spiritual life during his sojourn in France.
There is little doubt that Kalinowski found his role of tutor to the heir apparent to the Polish throne an enormous burden. The problem was he was dealing with a boy who had a serious health problem but whose educational needs had still to be seen to. He seems to have suffered some degree of scrupulosity in trying to fulfill his role. He saw his position as a private instructor as a necessary evil in the absence of suitable schools in the vicinity. After one year in this role he was looking for a way out. With the agreement of Prince Ladislaus , Kalinowski began to investigate alternative possibilities. The Jesuit college on the Vaugiraud was one obvious solution, and this was to be the live option. They had been getting good results in public examinations. Gucio had been attending some courses at Charlemagne College but again bad health meant he had to pull out. Kalinowski was of the opinion that establishments run by men dedicated exclusively to the service of God had a better chance of success than other schools. Sadly this kind of optimism in regard to religious educators in the 19th . Century has taken a battering in the 20th.
The health spas in Pyrennees.
The health of the young prince was an abiding cause for concern. Kalinowski had no great enthusiasm for shuttling from one health spa to another, but he didn’t want to let the family down at this point. So on one trip he took his protégé to a place called Eaux-Bonnes, in the lower Pyrenees, a name suggesting that the curative properties of the waters would benefit Gucio`s tuberculosis . Like Amelie-les-Bains from June to October or for the season, as it was called, it was popular with the sick, those suffering from various maladies, catarrh, bronchitis, laryngitis, etc. In fact the south of France is dotted with such health centres often obvious from the names of the places themselves.
The locality was charming and commanded beautiful views. In this case , as in that of Hermann Cohen, Kalinowski seemed to appreciate the majesty of the Pyrenees. We have no information whether Bishop Brady relished the beauty of the Pyrenees. It is certainly likely that he also gravitated there to avail of the treatment for rheumatism and arthritis and other ills that flesh is heir to.
They visited Lourdes. The young prince had returned to Paris and his mentor stayed on for a few more days. ` I departed from Lourdes`, he says, ` more quickly than I would have liked. It is definitely a very attractive place and a profound feeling of joy filled my heart when visiting the grotto where the Blessed Virgin manifested herself.` Hermann Cohen , who would be one of the sources of inspiration for Kalinowski in pursuing his vocation, had similar feelings at Lourdes over ten years previously. Zelie Martin , mother of St. Therese, would come here also just two years later with her daughters, hoping and praying for a cure for her cancer. Later Kalinowski would visit the town of Bagneres-de-Bigorre also in the vicinity , a place associated with the Carmelites sisters, and where Hermann Cohen had helped to set up a foundation of friars. Also in addition to founding a house of prayer at Tarasteix near Pau, Cohen worked on a new Carmelite foundation in Carcassone near Amelie-les-Bains.
Kalinowski really should have been a Salesian! The concerns of an educator of youth , which got him the job of tutor in the first place, are obvious in what follows: `Recently great changes have come about in France on the subject of education. They are not just catering for the intellectual formation of the child, they also try to import solid religious convictions.The (religious) congregations insist above all on this point and try hard to anchor youth in the heart of holy Church.I often see children in the churches singing the praises of God.` He then alludes to the fact that apart from the Brothers of Christian Schools, others also dedicated to the education of youth like the Jesuits and the Dominicans, also have colleges of higher education. He expresses the wish, now that religious education had been allowed, that Paris would soon have a Catholic university.
Though Lithuanian born and with Polish ancestry, we might expect Kaklinowski`s spirituality to be somewhat different to 19th. west European models. However this is not the case. Certainly his lifelong devotion to Our Lady was typically Polish and this was not essentially different from European and French models, for instance that put forward by Louis Grignion de Montfort. However as in the case of Hermann Cohen, there was a strong French flavor to much in his devotional approach. This is not altogether surprising as French authors were popular in Poland and elsewhere.. He was influenced by St. Francis de Sales and his classic work, `Introduction to a Devout Life` which he recommended to his sister Mary.
From his letters we find Kalinowski , still a layman, fully committed to the ascetic life. `All three of us` , he writes, ` are accustomed to our solitude and it is a trial for us to respond to the invitations we receive.` In the same letter he mentions an encounter on the train with Bishop Gaspard Mermillod of Geneva, who was on his way to Rome. Kalinowski joined the throng who knelt to receive his blessing and took the opportunity to ask him to pray for his family . It was Bishop Mermillod who welcomed Hermann Cohen to Geneva when he was forced to leave France at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war.The bishop asked Cohen to undertake the pastoral care of war refugees, which he did, opening a chapel for them on October 7th. However next month the bishop asked him to minister to the French prisoners of war in Spandau near Berlin because the Prussians would not allow a French chaplain to do so.
It was at the time of their sojourn in Davos , Switzerland that Kalinowski discussed with his parents the subject of his religious vocation . And around this time the Czartoryska women, Marcellina and Mother Mary-Xavier (who became a Carmelite back in Krakow) were on the lookout for a potential reformer and restorer of the Carmelite Friars in Poland. It didn’t seem to matter that he was not yet a member of the Order or even a postulant. Another member of the family Princess Iza set the ball rolling – she had already made contact with Kalinowski.
We have a letter on subsequent developments written by Mother Mary-Xavier ( she is referring to news regarding recent events from Princess Iza.) In the beginning of the letter she talks about the great impression made on her and the whole household in Paris when Hermann Cohen visited the Hotel Lambert. He was the first Teresian Carmelite they had met. She then goes on to talk about her own vocation to Carmel and the eventual vocation of Kalinowski also. As we know there was a happy outcome to this letter when Kalinowski joined the Carmelites on November 26, 1877. We see clearly from the first paragraph of this letter something of the role or at least the indirect influence exerted by Hermann Cohen in the renewal of Carmel in Poland.
Back in Paris with his protégé, Raphael Kalinowski had to endure another enforced delay in his plans to join the Carmelites, as Gucio had a relapse in the hot Paris atmosphere and it was decided to take him to the seaside at Trouville for a few days. It was at Trouville that the young Therese Martin had her first impression of the sea, whose immensity moved her deeply.It was health spa in those days.
They returned to Paris via Le Havre and Kalinowski discovered that his plans to leave `soon` had still to remain on hold as the priest who was meant to replace him as guide for Gucio still hadn’t turned up. This delay was understandably unsettling for Kalinowski , being as it was a completely unforseen obstacle. It reminds us of Therese of Lisieux`s impatience to enter the Carmelite Novitiate some years later, though in her case the obstacles were very different.
On July 5th 1877 he left the Czartoryski household for good. After they parted Gucio set out for Spain to visit his royal relatives. In a memoir in later life Kalinowski recalled some of the details from that era: `I don’t know much about the circumstances about his (Gucio`s) meeting with Don Bosco. I only know that some years later, when I had returned to Krakow, he was already a son of the blessed father and was under his direction.At Krakow he made confession to the Jesuit Rector.I said a final farewell to him in 1883 at Krakow Station where he had come to see me. The rest is known; I have written about what I have witnessed.`
The Salesian.
In fact Gucio`s aunt, Carmelite Prioress Mother Marie-Xavier tells us: `Auguste saw Don Bosco in Paris at the Hotel Lambert. He served his mass several times and from the beginning the holy priest exercised a great influence over him. From that time he showed an interest in religious life but didn’t know which order to choose. His father insisted on him frequenting society in Krakow and taking part in the soirees he arranged. But soon it was quite apparent that Auguste had no time for society, nor had society much time for him. He simply followed his father around and spoke little.` He would visit this aunt at the local Carmelite Convent and would speak to her about his future and the value of life as a Religious. One day she spoke to him prophetically:` Your father founded a museum in Krakow, but you, if God calls you to the religious life, will cover Poland with Salesian Communities.` To this he would only answer with a smile, but soon afterwards he came to the Carmelite Convent to announce that he was leaving to join Don Bosco in Turin.
The `Nouvelles Salesiennes` (Salesian News) for June 1893 takes up the story but as it happens it’s the end of the story:`An admirer of Don Bosco and for a long time closely associated with him, the young Prince Auguste, after much prayer and repeated entreaties, was admitted in 1887 to become a member of our holy society. ` In fact Don Bosco was firmly opposed to his entry into the new Society , not specifically for health reasons but apparently he felt a Prince would be unsuitable material as a Novice. It was not until he was given the nod by Pope Leo X11 at Auguste`s suggestion, that he agreed. The Salesian News continues:` So on November 24th of the same year, he received the clerical habit from the hands of Don Bosco himself, in the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians. After finishing his theological studies on April 3rd 1892, Don Auguste was ordained priest, a state to which he had felt called from infancy. He was an angel sent among us to give us an edifying example of rare virtue. Accustomed to the refinements and splendour of princely life, he renounced it all to embrace evangelical perfection. We have witnessed that he sought out privations with a generous spirit, taking on in this spirit the trials and crosses of the religious life. Surrounded up to now with servants to respond to his every wish, he aroused our admiration by submitting cheerfully to those whom obedience placed over him, and carrying out their wishes even in the least details and with scrupulous exactitude. During his agonizing illness he was always even tempered and perfectly resigned to God`s will. Always united with God, he prayed unceasingly for his brother labouring in the mission field of the Founding Father.`
The article goes on to note his saintly death at Alassio (Italy) on April 8th 1893. A few days later the funeral service took place and the Czartoryski family was represented by a stepbrother. Another service was held in Turin on April 27th attended by Princess Marcellina Czartoryski. The Princess was delighted to meet afterwards in the parlour one hundred and twenty Polish girls who had joined the Salesian Sisters. They acknowledged to her that they were indebted to the deceased prince and priest for the grace of vocation; if he could abandon such a privileged state they could leave a lesser one! Soon afterwards there were Salesian foundations in seven Polish cities, bearing out his Carmelite aunt`s prediction.These included Krakow, Warsaw and Przemysl where Auguste is now buried. At some point his remains had been transferred back to Poland. Kalinowski had helped in bringing a Carmelite community of sisters to this city. From the beginning the Salesians were engaged in the moral and intellectual formation of young people. Auguste`s example also inspired many young Polish men to join the Salesian Congregation. Then the March-April issue of the magazine of 1922 we are informed that the Process for the Beatification of Prince Auguste Czartoryski was begun in the private chapel of the episcopal palace in Albenga, Northern Italy in the presence of the Bishop. The Polish Prince turned Salesian priest was beatified by the Polish Pope , now known as Blessed John Paul 11 on April 24th 2004, thus adding another star to St. John Bosco`s crown.
The Carmelite .
In the meantime the Prince Auguste`s tutor Raphael Kalinowski`s left Paris and headed for the Carmelite headquarters in Linz, Austria which he reached on July 14th.1877. He was over 40 years of age, a late applicant by the customs of those days. The Provincial accepted his request for admittance and he was sent to the novitiate in Gratz. In fact the whole thing was rushed as he had to interrupt a letter to his parents to get on a coach to Gratz next day in order to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the novitiate house. He was able to finish his letter on the journey! After a few months postulancy he was clothed the habit of a Carmelite novice on November 26th.
After completing his novitiate he made his `simple profession` as a Carmelite on November 26th 1878 and was then sent to Gyor (Raab) in Hungary to continue his formation and begin his studies for the priesthood. He made Solemn Profession on November 27th 1881 into the hands of the Provincial Jerome-Mary Gotti – later created Cardinal. After this he was sent back to Poland, to the old-established and former `Desert House` in Czerna and the only remaining Carmelite presence in Poland.
At the age of 46, Kalinowski was ordained a priest by the Bishop Albino Dunajewski of Krakow on January 15th 1882. Present at his ordination were his brother Gabriel, Count Romain Bninski, the Capuchin Fr. Wenceslaus and Joseph Wasilewski, the former troubled young man now a Jesuit priest – all had been his companions in exile.
His ability and worth were quickly recognized, being appointed Prior of Czerna the following year. Three years later the Provincial Council, meeting in Linz appointed him a Definitor (Councillor) He was never out of office in the years that followed until his death. Next he was made Prior of Czerna for a second time and following that was entrusted with founding and leading a new Carmelite house in Wadowice between 1891 and 1894. (Wadowice of course was the birthplace of Karol Woytyla, later Pope John Paul 11.)Then it was back to Czerna again for another period as Prior. After that it was back to Wadowice again in a similar capacity until 1889 when he was appointed Vicar Provincial for the Carmelite nuns in Galicia. At the Chapter following this period he was named a Provincial Councillor once again. His last appointment was again as Prior of Wadowice in 1906 but he did not live to finish his term of office. Kalinowski founded a `little college` here also for boys attached to the Wadowice Priory , which is still in existence.
Raphael Kalinowski more than fulfilled the trust the Czartoryska women placed in his potential even before he became a Carmelite. His work led to the expansion and growth of the Carmelite Order in Poland. He can truly be called the Restorer of Carmel in Poland. Here again he bears a distinct resemblance Hermann Cohen, whose biography he compiled and who did so much to restore the Teresian Carmelites in France and England a short time previously. Kalinowski continued to work without interruption into 1906 though his health was beginning to give way. While visiting the convent at Prezemsyl he suffered a stroke but carried on working. He was able to attend a Profession ceremony on July 21 in the church at Wadowice and was strong enough to address the community exhorting them to live not for themselves or for the world but only for God, for the Blessed Virgin and for the good of the faithful.
Final Reprieve.
Later he would write letters of farewell to his former comrades in exile, the last one on August 7th to Fr. Fiszer who was his confessor and friend in Perm, Siberia: `I am on the edge of the tomb.I must `shuffle off this mortal coil` and hold myself ready.` On 20 August he celebrated the Eucharist for the last time. He received the last rites on November 13th, though he had hoped to die on the feast of All Souls. Two days later he took up his breviary. The brother assisting him told him it was November 15, the feast of all the Deceased of the Order. So he got his wish in a slightly different way. He replied the brother: `Well then, I go to my rest`.These were his last words.
Raphael Kalinowski was beatified in Krakow by Pope John Paul 11 during his historic homecoming , on June 22 1983 in the presence of two million people. He was canonized by the same Pope on November 17th 1991at St. Peter`s in Rome. Before leaving for the Conclave in Rome that elected him Pope in an historic election, Karol Woytyla, Archbishop of Krakow prayed at the tomb of Raphael Kalinowski.
In this account I have dealt with four outstanding personages from the nineteenth century . They had much in common , not least holiness of life. We find an amazing spiritual bond between all four emanating from France and its capital Paris, the City of Light, where the first Bishop of Perth studied for the priesthood. The holiness of Raphael Kalinowski and Auguste Czartoryski is beyond question; in regard to Hermann Cohen numerous people have expressed the wish for him to be beatified . We can still enjoy some of his sacred music , especially his Latin Mass which is inspiring and uplifting. (The CD is available at Infant Jesus Church , Morley.)He is a marvelous example of the power of grace and the possibility of radical conversion from addictions such as gambling, which he successfully overcame. His life ended in heroic ministry to prisoners of war from whom he caught smallpox and died at the age of 49. It is possible that the holiness of Bishop Brady is not far behind the others. He faced enormous obstacles in his effort to evangelize a fledging colony and cater for its needs covering such an immense area and he did so in Spartan conditions. It is likely that he was hard done by in life and often misunderstood in the work he undertook. The example of Australia`s first saint Mary MacKillop , who like Brady was also briefly excommunicated would point in this direction.
A single thread running through this story is that the remains of all four have been exhumed from their original resting places and brought to their respective physical or spiritual homes, where they can now be venerated by the faithful.
Tadgh Tierney ocd, Morley.