On the occasion of his golden jubilee in 1888, he showed his esteem for the Society by canonizing Peter Claver, and when the Fathers went to express their gratitude for this mark of affection, he replied that the Society had always been dear to the Sovereign Pontiffs, considering it as they did to be a bulwark of religion, and a most valiant legion that was always ready to undertake the greatest labors for the Church and the salvation of souls. To himself personally it had always been very dear. He had shown this affection as soon as he was made Pope, by making a cardinal of Father Mazzella, whose virtue and doctrine he held in the highest esteem, and by employing Cardinal Franzelin as long as he lived in the most important and most secret negotiations. Neither of whom ever waited for the expression of his wish. A mere suggestion sufficed. He then began to speak of his boyhood in the College of Viterbo, where he had learned to love the Jesuit teachers, and he went on to say that his affection had increased in the Roman College under such eminent masters as Taparelli, Manera, Perrone, Caraffa and others whom he named. He spoke enthusiastically of Father Roothaan, and then reverting to Blessed John Berchmans whom he had canonized, he told how his devotion to the boy saint began in his early college days of Viterbo.
In 1896 he showed his approval of the Society's theology by giving it the Institutum Leoninum at Anagni, and in the Motu proprio which he issued on that occasion, he said: "To the glory which the Society acquired even in its earliest days among learned men, by its scientific achievements and the excellent work it accomplished in doctrinal matters, must be added the art which is so full of cleverness and initiative of instilling knowledge and piety in the hearts of their scholars. Such has been their reputation throughout their history, and we recall with pleasure that we have had the opportunity of studying under the most distinguished Jesuits. Hence, as soon as by the Providence of God we were called to the Supreme Pontificate, we asked more than once that young men, especially those who were to consecrate themselves to the Church, should be trained by the members of the Society, both in our own city and in distant countries of the world. We recall especially in this connection their work among the Basilians of Galicia and in the Xaverian Seminary which we established at Kandy in the East Indies. Hence, wishing to inaugurate an educational institution in our native city of Anagni, we cast our eyes upon the members of the Society and in neither case have we been disappointed."
The mention of the Ruthenian Basilians refers to an extremely delicate work entrusted to the Jesuits. Something had gone wrong in the Basilian province of Ruthenia, and at the request of the bishops and by command of the Pope, a number of Galician Jesuits took up their abode in the monastery of that ancient and venerable Order, and after twelve years of labor restored its former fervor. One scarcely knows which deserves greater commendation: the prudence and skill of those who undertook the difficult task or the humility and submission of those who were the objects of it. When the end had been attained, the Jesuits asked to be relieved of the burden of direction and government, and far from leaving any trace of resentment behind them, it was solemnly declared by a general congregation of the Basilian monks that the link of affection which had been established between the two orders was to endure forever. The second apostolic work alluded to by the Pope in this Brief of 1897, was the Pontifical Seminary for all India which he had built on the Island of Ceylon and entrusted to the Belgian Jesuits.
In 1887, he had established a hierarchy of thirty dioceses in the Indies, and as a native clergy would have to be provided, an ecclesiastical seminary was imperative. The Propaganda was therefore commissioned to erect the buildings and provide for the maintenance of the teachers, and in virtue of the command 250 acres of land were bought in 1892 near the city of Kandy on the Ampitiya Hills. Father Grosjean, S. J., was appointed superior and began his work in a bungalow. It took five years before any suitable structures could be provided. The course of studies included three years of philosophy and four years of theology. There is now a staff of eleven professors and they have succeeded in overcoming a difficulty which seemed at first insurmountable, namely, the grouping together under one roof of a number of men who were of different castes and of different races. The bishops held off for a time, and in the first year only one diocese sent its pupils; three years later, seven were represented and now there are one hundred seminarians from all parts of India. They are so well trained that it is a rare thing for them not to satisfy their bishops when they return as priests. "The project of the great Pontiff, Leo XIII," says the Belgian chronicler, "seemed audacious but the results have justified it."
The Fathers found another friend in Pius X. They knew him when he was Bishop of Mantua, and he not only frequented their house but used to delight to stand at the gate distributing the usual dole to the poor. He enjoyed immensely the joke of the coadjutor brother who said, "Bishop Sarto (sarto means tailor) will make a fine garment for the Church when he is Pope;" though the holy prelate never dreamt of any such honor in those days or even when he was Patriarch of Venice. When he went to his new see, he took his Jesuit confessor with him, and there, as at Mantua, he was at home with the community and found particular delight in talking to the brothers. When Farther Martín lost his arm in consequence of an operation for sarcoma, the Pope gave him permission to celebrate Mass. "I tried it myself to see if it were possible," he said, "and I found it could be done without much difficulty, so I give permission to Father General to offer the Holy Sacrifice, provided another priest assists him." When the new General, Father Wernz, and his associates presented themselves to the Pope after the election, he thanked God for having given him the Society, which he described as "a chosen body of soldiers, who were skilled in war, trained to fight, and ready at the first sign of their leader." He gave a further proof of the trust he had in them by putting into their hands the Pontifical Biblical Institute, which was part of the general purpose he had in view when, in 1901, he organized the Biblical Commission already described.
Apart from the esteem manifested by the Sovereign Pontiffs for the Society itself as a religious order, their personal regard for each successive General is worthy of note. Thus Pius VII, on being informed of the election of Father Brzozowski as General, immediately expressed his gratification by letter "that the Society had chosen a man of such merit and virtue." Leo XII, as we have said, lived on the most intimate and affectionate terms with Father Fortis. Only his brief career as Pontiff prevented him from giving more positive proofs of his affection. The same may be said of Pius VIII, whose term was even shorter than that of Leo XII. During that time, however, he lavished favors on the Society. Gregory XVI made Father Roothaan his intimate friend and gave him any favor he asked, and Pius IX expressed the wish that "the Society would elect a General of equal prudence and wisdom, and who, like Roothaan, would be a man according to the heart of God." The amiable Father Beckx was always welcomed by Pius IX and their intercourse with each other was almost one of familiarity. When the General was on his death-bed, Leo XIII said to the Roman provincial: "I am deeply moved by the illness and suffering of Father Beckx for whom I have always entertained a great regard and even a filial affection. I most willingly send him my blessing; tonight in his pain and agony, I shall be at his side in spirit and aid him with my prayers."
In Father Beckx's successor, Father Anderledy, Leo XIII had absolute confidence. So too, Father Martín's return to Rome from Fiesole was made an occasion of great rejoicing for the Pope, who used to ask Cardinal Aloysius Massella good humoredly: "Why don't you give up your office and be a Jesuit?" When Father Martín presented himself for an audience in times of trouble, Leo would say to him affectionately: "Come here, Father General and sit beside me so that we can talk over our sorrows; for your sufferings are mine."
Of course, affection was almost expected from Pius X, and when Father Martín returned to Rome with his health slightly improved, his reception by the Pope was like that of a son coming from the grave to the arms of his father. Later on he kept himself informed about Father Martín's suffering and prayed for him several times every day. "We cannot spare such men" was his expression; and when at last the General died, the Pope was deeply affected. "He was a man of God," was his exclamation, "A saint! A saint! A saint!" At the election of Father Wernz, Pius X spoke of the great good he had done to the whole Church by his profound learning as teacher in the Gregorian University. "There was scarcely any part of the world," he said, "where his merit was not acknowledged. He was known to all as the possessor of a great, solid and sure intelligence; of vast erudition which found expression in his learned treatises on the Law of Decretals, and which won the applause of all who were versed in canon law."
Another mark of this esteem for the Society, though an unwelcome one, was the elevation of so many of its members to ecclesiastical dignities by the Sovereign Pontiffs. First, in point of time, was the selection of John Carroll to be the founder of the American hierarchy. It was all the more notable because Challoner, the Vicar Apostolic of London, had repeatedly said that there was no one in America who measured up to the height of the episcopal dignity. The sequel proved that the Pontiff was wiser than the Vicar. We have already called attention to the fact not generally known that there was another Jesuit appointed to the See of Baltimore; though he never wore the mitre. He died before the Bulls arrived. His name was Laurence Grässel, and he had been a novice in the Society in Germany at the time of the Suppression. Carroll describes him as "a most amiable ex-Jesuit." Shea records the fact that "the Reverend Laurence Grässel, a learned and devoted priest, of whose sanctity tradition has preserved the most exalted estimate, revived the missions in New Jersey which had been attended by the Reverend Messrs. Schneider and Farmer." (Vol. II.)
Leonard Neale, who succeeded Archbishop Carroll in the See of Baltimore, was a Jesuit priest in Liège at the Suppression. Before returning to his native country, he spent four years in England and four more in Demerara. In Philadelphia, when vicar general of Bishop Carroll, he was stricken with yellow fever while administering to the sick during the pestilence. Later he was made president of Georgetown College, and in 1801 was appointed Coadjutor of Baltimore. The successor of the illustrious Cheverus in the See of Boston was Benedict Fenwick, who had entered the Society in Maryland eight years before Pius VII re-established it throughout the world. The first Bishop of New York also would have been a Jesuit, Anthony Kohlmann, had not Father Roothaan, entreated the Pope to withdraw the nomination.
Anthony Kohlmann was born at Kaisersberg in Alsace, July 13, 1771. The outbreak of the French Revolution compelled him to leave his country when he was a young man and betake himself to Switzerland to continue his interrupted studies. He completed his theological course and was ordained a priest in the College of Fribourg. In 1796 he joined the Congregation of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart, and labored for two years in Austria and Italy as a military chaplain. We find him next at Dillingen in Bavaria as the director of an ecclesiastical seminary. By this time the Fathers of the Faith, Paccanari's organization, had united with those of the Sacred Heart, and Kohlmann was dispatched to Berlin and subsequently to Amsterdam as rector of a new college in that place.
As soon as he heard that the Jesuits in White Russia had been recognized by the Pope, he applied for admission, and entered the novitiate at Duneburg on 21 June, 1803, and in the following year was sent to Georgetown as assistant-master of novices. While holding that position he travelled extensively through Pennsylvania and Maryland to look after several groups of German colonists who had settled in those states. When the ecclesiastical troubles of New York were at their height, Bishop Carroll selected Kohlmann to restore order. With him went Father Benedict Fenwick and four scholastics. He was given charge of that whole district in 1808. There were about fourteen thousand Catholics there at the time: French, German and Irish. In 1809 he laid the corner stone of old St. Patrick's, which was the second church in the city. He also founded the New York Literary Institution as a school for boys, on what is now the site of the present cathedral, but which then was far out of town. In 1812 he began a nearby school for girls and gave it to the Ursuline nuns, who had been sent from Ireland for that purpose.
Father Kohlmann rendered a great service to the Church by the part he took in gaining a verdict for the protection of the seal of Confession. He had acted as agent in the restitution of stolen money when the owner of it demanded the name of the thief. As this was refused, he haled the priest to court, but the case ended in a decision given by the presiding Judge, DeWitt Clinton, that "no minister of the Gospel or priest of any denomination whatsoever shall be allowed to disclose any confession made to him in his professional character in the course of discipline enjoined by the rules or practices of such denomination." This decision was embodied in a state law passed on December 10, 1828. His controversy with Jared Sparks, a well-known Unitarian, brought his reply entitled "Unitarianism, theologically and philosophically considered." It is a classic on that topic.
As mentioned above, Kohlmann was designated Bishop of New York, but at the entreaty of the General of the Society, the Pope withdrew his name. In 1815 he returned to Georgetown as master of novices, and in 1817 was appointed president of the college. In 1824 he was called to Rome as professor of theology in the Gregorian University and occupied that post for five years. Among his students were the future Pope Leo XIII, Cardinal Cullen of Dublin, and Cardinal McCloskey of New York. Both Leo XII and Gregory XVI held Kohlmann in the highest esteem and had him attached to them as consultor to the staffs of the College of cardinals and to several important congregations such as that of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs; of Bishops and Regulars; and the Inquisition. He died at Rome in 1836, in consequence of overwork in the confessional.
It might be of interest to quote here a passage from the "Life of John Cardinal McCloskey" by Cardinal Farley: "About this time Father McCloskey suffered the loss of a very dear and devoted friend, Father Anthony Kohlmann, S. J. As pastor of St. Peter's, Barclay Street, he had been the adviser of the young priest's parents in New York for many years. He had seen him grow up from childhood, and had been his guide and friend in Rome. It is therefore but natural that he should express himself feelingly on the death of this holy man, as in this letter addressed to the Very Rev. Dr. Power:
Rome, April 15, 1836.
'Very Rev. dear Sir:
'It is truly with deep regret that I now feel it my duty to acquaint you with the news which, if not already known to you, cannot but give you pain. Our venerable and most worthy friend, Father Kohlmann, is no more. He has been summoned to another world, after a warning of only a few days. On Friday, the 8th. inst., he was as usual in his confessional. During the course of the day he was seized with a violent fever which obliged him to take to his bed, and on Sunday morning, about five o'clock, he was a corpse. On Monday, I had the melancholy pleasure of beholding him laid out in the Church of the Gesù, where numbers were assembled to show respect for his memory, and to view for a little time his mortal remains. His sickness was so very short that death effected but little change in his appearance. He seemed to be in a gentle sleep, such calmness and placidity. His countenance seemed to have lost nothing of its usual fulness or even freshness. And such was the composure of every feature, that one could hardly resist saying within himself: He is not dead, but sleepeth. His loss as you may well conceive, is deeply regretted by the members of his Order here as well as by all who knew him.
'As for myself, I feel his death most sensibly, having lost in him so prudent a director, so kind a father and friend. You also, Very Reverend and dear Sir, are deprived by his death of a most active and valuable friend in Rome.'"
In Hughes's "History of the Society of Jesus in North America" (I, pt. ii, 866) there is a quotation from the "Memoirs" of Father Grassi which refers to Father Kohlmann and calls for consideration. He is described by the odious name of Paccanarist. As a matter of fact, Kohlmann joined the Fathers of the Sacred Heart in 1796, three years before Paccanari was even heard of. In April 1799, by order of the Pope, the Fathers of the Sacred Heart were amalgamated with Paccanari's Fathers of the Faith, but from the very beginning there was distinct cleavage between the two sections; and in 1803 when it became evident that Paccanari had no intention of uniting with the Jesuits in Russia, Kohlmann was one of the first to separate from him and was admitted to the Society in that year. If he was a "Paccanarist," then so were Rozaven and Varin.
We are also informed that Kohlmann was an ex-Capuchin. It is strange, however, that Guidée makes no mention of it in his historical sketches of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart. Moreover, if he ever were a member of that Order, it must have been for an extremely brief period; for he was born in 1771, and at the outbreak of the French Revolution which swept away all religious communities he was only eighteen years of age. We find him then finishing his theological studies at Fribourg where the Jesuits had been conspicuous before the Suppression, and he was ordained a priest in 1796, when he was twenty-five years old. Immediately afterwards, he joined the Fathers of the Sacred Heart. So that if he ever had been a Capuchin it must have been at a very early age; and in any case he did not leave his Order voluntarily. It had been swept out of existence in the general storm.
Grassi tells us also that, out of pity for the distressed religious who had been thrown out of their homes at that time, the General of the Society had asked the Pope to lift the ban against the Society's receiving into its ranks the members of other Orders – a policy which it had always pursued, both out of respect for the Orders themselves, and because a change in such a serious matter would imply instability of character in the applicant. Father Pignatelli was deputed to submit the cause to His Holiness, and Grassi is in admiration at the sublime obedience of Pignatelli in doing what he was told; but it is hard to imagine why he should be so edified. The Professed of the Society make a special and solemn vow of obedience to the Pope and admit his decision without question. Even when the Pope suppressed the entire Society they defended his action. Where is there anything heroic in being merely the messenger between the General and the Pope? In any case Kohlmann's admission to the Society was with the full approval of both the Sovereign Pontiff and the General, even if he had been a Capuchin, which is by no means certain.
We are also informed that the authorities in Rome were surprised that Kohlmann was admitted to his last vows before the customary ten years had elapsed, but there are many such instances in the history of the Society, and the General in referring to it may have been merely asking for information. Finally with regard to the alleged worry about Kohlmann's appointment as Vicar General of New York; it suffices to say that the office is of its nature temporary, and cannot well be classified as a prelacy; especially as there was only one permanent church structure in the entire episcopal territory that stretched between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, and the clergy was largely made up of transients.
At the time that Father Kohlmann was mentioned for the See of New York, Father Peter Kenny was proposed for that of Dromore in Ireland. Foley in his "Chronological Catalogue of the Irish Province S. J." gives a brief account of this very distinguished man, who like Kohlmann was for some time identified with the Church in the United States.
He was born in Dublin, July 7, 1779, and entered the Society at Hodder, Stonyhurst, September 20, 1804. He died in the Gesù at Rome, November 19, 1841. When a boy he attracted the notice of Father Thomas Betagh, the last of the Irish Jesuits of the old Society, who was then Vicar General of Dublin, and was sent to Carlow College. Even in early youth he was remarkable for his extraordinary eloquence. When a novice he was told to come down from the pulpit, his fellow-novices being so spell-bound that they refused to eat. At Stonyhurst, he wrote a work on mathematics and physics. In 1811 he was Vice-President of Maynooth College. He purchased Clongowes Wood in 1814, and in 1819 was sent as visitor to the Jesuit houses of Maryland. He was made vice-provincial of Ireland in 1829, and again came to America in 1830, where he remained for three years and then installed Father McSherry as the first provincial of the American province. His retreats in Ireland are still enthusiastically referred to and quoted. In 1809 when he was finishing his theology in Palermo, Father Angiolini wrote to Father Plowden "Father Kenny is head and shoulders over every one. He has genius, health, zeal, energy, success in action and prudence to a remarkable degree. May God keep him for the glory and increase of the Irish Missions!" God did so and the missions of America also profited by his genius and virtue.
Later on, Father Van de Velde was made Bishop of Chicago, but he continually petitioned Rome to be allowed to return to the Society; while Father Miège after twenty-four years of the episcopate and without waiting to celebrate his silver jubilee became a Jesuit again and spent his last days at Woodstock, where he met Father Michael O'Connor, who had resigned the See of Pittsburg in order to assume the habit of St. Ignatius. His brother before being made Bishop of Omaha asked to enter the Society but he was told "Be a bishop first like your brother and afterwards a Jesuit." One of the most distinguished Jesuits of New York, Father Larkin, had to flee the country to avoid being made Bishop of Toronto, and Father William Duncan of Boston would have occupied the See of Savannah had not he entered the Society.
The same thing is true of the cardinalate. An unusually large number of Jesuits have been raised to that dignity in the hundred years of the new Society, in spite of the oath they have taken to do all in their power to prevent it, an oath which they have all most faithfully kept, yielding only because they were bidden to do so under pain of sin.
Camillo Mazzella entered the Society in 1857, and when the scholasticate at Woodstock in Maryland was opened, he was made prefect of studies. He was called to Rome in 1878 to take the place of Franzelin in the Gregorian University. In 1886 he was created Cardinal deacon and ten years later Cardinal priest, while in 1897 he was appointed Cardinal bishop of Palestrina. Camillo Tarquini was made cardinal because of his prominence as a canonist; Andreas Steinhüber's learning and his great labors as Vatican librarian won for him the honor of the purple, while Louis Billot after teaching dogmatic theology at Angers and the Gregorian University was named Cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata on November 27, 1911. But much greater consolation has been afforded to the new Society by the canonization of its saints than by the choice of its members for the cardinalate. One is a recognition of the intellectual ability and personal virtue; the other is an official, though indirect, approval of the Institute.
At the very time that Pombal, Choiseul and Charles III were crushing the Society in their respective countries, Rome as if in condemnation of the act was jubilant with delight over the heroic virtue of the Italian Jesuit, Francis Hieronymo; and people were asking each other how a Society could be bad when it produced such a saint? In an issue of the "Gazette" of distant Quebec at that time we find a bewildered Protestant Englishman who was the journal's correspondent at Rome asking himself that question. The political troubles of the period caused the proceedings of the canonization to be suspended, but Gregory XVI, who succeeded Leo XII, canonized Francis on the Feast of the Blessed Trinity, 1839. Pius IX beatified Canisius, Bobola, Faber, de Britto and Berchmans, with Peter Claver, the apostle of the negroes, and the lay-brother Alphonso Rodríguez, besides placing the crown of martyrdom on the throng of martyrs in Japan, Europeans and natives alike, as well as upon Azevedo and his thirty-nine Portuguese associates who were slaughtered at sea near the Azores.
Leo XIII beatified Antonio Baldinucci and Rudolph Aquaviva with his fellow-Jesuits who were put to death at Salsette in Hindostan, besides raising to the honors of sainthood Peter Claver and Alphonso Rodríguez, and also placing John Berchmans in the same category, thus re-affirming the sanctity of the rules of the Society, for the realization of which the holy youth had already been beatified. The canonization of Alphonso is also notable because it was by Leo XII, whose name Leo XIII had adopted, that the humble porter of Minorca was raised to the first honors of the altar. Finally, Pius X showed his love for the Society and his approval of the rule by beatifying the three martyrs of Hungary whom scarcely anybody had ever heard of before: Mark Crisin, Stephen Pongracz and Melchior Grodecz. There is also under consideration the beatification of the great American apostles Jogues, Brébeuf, Lalemant, Daniel, Chabanel, Garnier, Goupil and Lalande, five of whom died for the Faith in Canada, and three in what is now the State of New York.
The new Society has not failed to add new names to this catalogue of honor of prospective saints. They are Joseph Pignatelli, who died in 1811; Father Joseph de Clorivière, 1820; Paul Cappelari, 1857; and Paul Ginhac, 1895. Five Jesuits were put to death at Paris in 1871 by the Communards: namely Pierre Olivaint, Anatole de Bengy, Alexis Clerc, Léon Ducoudray, and Jean Caubert.
Between 1822 and 1902, forty-four others have given glory to the Society either by the heroic sanctity of their lives, or by shedding their blood for the Faith. Besides these, there are thirty-five Jesuits who have been put to death in various parts of the world. They are: four Italians, Ferdinando Bonacini and Luigi Massa in 1860; Genaio Pastore in 1887 and Emilio Moscoso in 1897; four Germans: Anthony Terorde in 1880; Stephen Czimmerman, Joseph Platzer and Clemens Wigger who were killed by the Caffirs in 1895-6. The French can boast of 12 namely: Bishop Planchet in 1859; Edouard Billotet; Elie Jounès, Habib Maksoud, and Alphonse Habeisch who were killed in Syria in 1860; Martin Brutail in 1883; Gaston de Batz in 1883; Modeste Andlauer, Léon Mangin, Remi Isoré, and Paul Denn, who met their death in the Boxer Uprising in 1900; Léon Müller was killed by the Boxers two years later. Sixteen Spaniards were put to death: Casto Hernández, Juan Sauri, Juan Artigas, José Fernández, Juan Elola, José Urrietta, Domingo Barreau, José Garnier, José Sancho, Pedro Demont, Firmin Barba, Martín Buxons, Emanuel Ostolozza, Juan Ruedas, Vincente Gogorza, who were massacred in Madrid in 1834.