different view of Brisacier's conduct, and showed his esteem of him by appointing him to various important offices, such as that of Visitor in Spain and Portugal, Rector at Rouen, and subsequently at Paris.

Callaghan, on the other hand, was held in detestation by his compatriots. His activity, however, was not confined to Cour-Cheverney. In April, 1653, he In April, 1653, he accompanied Lord Taaffe on a mission to Rome, in the interests of Charles II. The Jansenists supplied him with means to meet the expenses of the journey, and he, in turn, advocated their interests, and at the same time vented his antipathy to his old opponent Rinuccini, whom he described as having been coldly received by Innocent X on his return from Ireland, and blamed by His Holiness for having acted with temerity. After his return from Rome, he seems to have spent the closing years of his life in Paris, where he died in 1664. He was interred at Port-Royal, along with Saint-Cyran, Abbé Singlin, and Mère Angélique, whose remains were venerated as those of the saints of Jansenism.

Dr. Callaghan was a man of remarkable tenacity. Fortunately his efforts to taint the Irish clergy with Jansenism failed. The house he opened for them in the Faubourg Saint-Marceau came to naught. The great majority of the Irish students in Paris, as is manifest by their protest against Jansenism in 1651, were unaffected by his seductions. Their successors in 1676, on learning that they were suspected of Jansenistic tendencies, addressed to the Holy See an indignant protest, and declared their abhorrence of the heresy. It is true that Malachy Kelly, who was put forward for a bishopric in 1669, was reported to Rome as Jansenista arrabiato.1 But as he afterwards became one of the first Provisors of the Lombard College, the Bishops must have been satisfied as to his orthodoxy. And no taint of the heresy ever made its way into that establishment.

1 Apud Bellesheim: Geschichte der Katolischen Kirche in Irland, vol. ii. 609.

For in 1736, when Jansenism was widely spread amongst the clergy in Paris, the Papal Nuncio, Mgr. Dolci, in an official report bore witness that, in the Irish College, consisting of about one hundred persons, profession is made of the most correct doctrine; nor is anyone tolerated therein who is in the least suspected.' '

1

PATRICK BOYLE, c.m.

1 Vatican Archives, Nunz. de Francia,' vol. 261; apud Bellesheim, vol. iii. p. 45.

CATHOLIC IDEALISM:

THE ROMANCE OF RETREATS IN IRELAND

BY REV. R. S. DEVANE, S.J.

III

THE FIRST RETREAT HOUSE FOR WOMEN IN IRELAND

IT

T will be a relief to get away from the sordid facts of the last few pages' and come into the clearer air of purity and religious fervour. In Dublin, and indeed all over the country, are to be found numbers of Catholic young women destined to lead their lives in the world, and yet to be 'not of the world.' Religion with them is not an external formalism, but a living power that colours their lives and vitalizes all they attempt or do. These are capable of the highest efforts where God and Religion are concerned, and all that is needed is the direction of their energies into some usefu channels. Idealists without being aware of the fact, i needs but the consciousness of this Catholic Idealism t stimulate them to realize the ideals that have been awak ened within them. Farm horses and race horses are fed and trained on quite different lines, and so with the ordinar type of Catholic and the Catholic Idealist. No doubt, bot types will be influenced by an enclosed retreat, but th influence in the one case will begin and end in the ind vidual, while with the other it overleaps itself and passe out to the objects of various forms of Catholic Socia Activity, or Idealism, if you will. The enclosed retrea awakens, develops, and stimulates the latent spiritua powers of the Idealist, and at the same time canalizes an directs them. The Lay Apostle becomes a power and force when organized through the Retreat House. Th Lay Woman becomes the Lay Nun, and one may add, th Lay Man becomes the Lay Priest.

1 See L. E. RECORD, June, 1923, vol. xxi. pp. 561-583.

As already stated, the Irish Sisters of Charity became keenly interested in a Teachers' Retreat, and started straightway to organize their Dublin teachers during the early part of last year. Their Holiday Home at Baldoyle was then closed, and they resolved to use it as a temporary Retreat House. The first Teachers' Retreat was held there during the Holy Week of 1922, and thirty-six teachers went through the Spiritual Exercises. So impressed were the Sisters with the experience that they determined to continue the experiment, if possible, as far as the holiday season, when the Home must revert to its primary purpose. Immediately they set to work by personal canvass and through others, to convince girls in counting houses, business and Government offices, etc., of the advantages of the enclosed retreat, with most encouraging and even striking results. Difficulties of course, arose on all sides, as they do in every case where serious work is to be done, especially on new lines, for God and Religion.' But by dogged perseverance and grace all were overcome. After the first few groups were secured, matters became less formidable. Many of the girls, like the men who had made a retreat and tasted and seen how sweet the Lord was, went out as active agents and canvassers, and individually secured 12, 20, 24, etc., and led them personally to Baldoyle, while one enthusiast succeeded in inducing 30 of the staff where she was engaged to sacrifice their well-earned week-end, and go to spend it in the silence of the enclosed retreat. So successful were the Sisters' efforts that they were able to continue the retreats until the Holiday Home was opened in summer, and after its closing, until the winter set in, and the cold deterred them from developing as they should have wished. Since then the place has been fitted with a hot-water heating system, and considerable additions to the number of the retreats and retreatants may be looked forward to in the coming year.

1 In a letter from the Rev. Mother, Baldoyle, she says: One difficulty after another, and much opposition, had to be overcome before we were able to arrange for the first retreat, under St. Joseph's Patronage, for the 19th March, 1922.'

There are forty rooms in the Baldoyle Retreat House. Each girl has a chambrette, neatly appointed and furnished. The grounds are beautifully laid out, and in addition, the large racecourse alongside the Home is available for recreation, so there is no overcrowding. The Convent looks on to the sea, and is separated from it only by the width of the Baldoyle Road.

During last year there were eighteen retreats, with an average attendance of 35 on each, so that close on 650 girls availed of the opportunity of making an enclosed retreat. It must be borne in mind that this work was suddenly undertaken, without any preparatory organization, and with many difficulties as a consequence to be overcome, and yet such a notable success has been attained. This proves that, as with our men, and even more, our women can appreciate spiritual luxuries and make sacrifices not a few to possess them.

THE POWER HOUSE-THE

LIVE WIRE 'THE LAY APOSTLE

The object of the enclosed retreat is twofold: to make the individual a better Catholic, and, if the stuff be in him, to galvanise him and send him back to the world of men as a live wire' to galvanise others into Catholic activity. If an individual has not been given that spiritual receptivity, that quality to retain and conduct spiritual power to others, the Retreat Director must be content with making him love the Lord his God, with a fuller and more perfect love. But if he has been given that inestimable gift, that indefinable quality, that combination of vision, enthusiasm and grit which can be charged, and through which he can be fired to dream and to dare and to do, then the Second Commandment of the Lord, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,' must be made for him an ideal to be striven for in practice, and the claims of the Church, the Christian State and his fellow-men must act as so many stimuli to fire him on to action. The wider appeal is naturally with the ordinary, the passive type of man; the appeal par excellence to the few and to the elect.