A SERMON 
 
 i 
 
 ON THE 
 
 250TH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 COMING OF THE JESUITS TO AMERICA 
 
 AND THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THK 
 PROVINCE OF MARYLAND. 
 
 DKL1VKRED IN ST. MARY'S CHURCH, BOSTON. APRIL y, 1X83. 
 
 REV. THEODORE A. METCALF. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRINTED BY CASHMAN. KEATING & CO. 
 Fayette Court, 603 Washington Street. 
 1883. 
 
A SERMON 
 
 ON THE 
 
 250TH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COMING OF THE JESUITS TO AMERICA 
 
 AND THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 PROVINCE OF MARYLAND, 
 
 DELIVERED IN ST. MARY'S CHURCH, BOSTON, APRIL 15, if 
 
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 REV. THEODORE A. METCALF. r m 
 
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 BOSTON : 
 
 PRINTED BY CASHMAN, KEATING & CO. 
 Fayette Court, 603 Washington Street. 
 1883. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 " These are the days -which shall never be forgot ; and which all prov. 
 inces in the whole world shall celebrate throughout all generatiotis." 
 — Esther, c. ix. v. 28, 
 
 Nineteen centuries ago the Redeemer stood by the shore 
 of the sea of Galilee, surrounded by a little band of faithful fol- 
 lowers. He had for three years poured into their hearts the 
 fountain of his divine teaching, and finally put the seal of his 
 omnipotence upon his words, by gloriously conquering death. 
 His labors were ended, the world had been " bought with great 
 price," his blood, and the hour had come when he should 
 part with His disciples, and leave to them the conversion of 
 the human race. The words he spoke to them on that solemn 
 day, have never ceased to echo through succeeding ages : 
 borne on over the deserts of Syria; over the mountains of 
 Armenia and Persia ; to the Indies ; across the Red Sea into 
 the heart of Egypt and Ethiopia ; Greece and Rome and Gaul 
 and Spain and Britain, caught up the celestial harmony as it 
 fell from the lips of Jesus, and, at last, the great ocean received 
 it on its restless bosom, and carried it, amidst the roar of 
 mighty winds and waters, to lay it on the shores of our own 
 dear land Columbia. " Go, teach all nations, all things, 
 whatsoever I have commanded you." Behold, my brethren, 
 in one sentence the mission of the Church of Christ ! behold 
 in one sentence the sacred battle cry, which has led on the 
 soldiers of the Lord to the glorious conquest of souls, or 
 crowned them with the equally glorious laurels of a martyr's 
 death ! 
 
 We are gathered to-day, my brethren, within the walls of 
 this great temple, amidst the blaze of light and the perfume 
 of incense and flowers, and the sound of delicious music, and 
 
4 
 
 the pomp of ceremonial, to remember the happy days when 
 the echo of Jesus' words came unto our homes, and to celebrate 
 those days with more than common joy. 
 
 " Those are the days which shall never be forgot ; and 
 which all provinces in the whole world shall celebrate through- 
 out all generations." 
 
 Four hundred years ago, the spot where we now worship 
 God, was a vast wilderness, peopled only by savages, but 
 they had not heard the echo of the teaching vocie : to-day, 
 that voice rules the land. In the year 1492, Columbus 
 planted the cross upon this newly-discovered land, and the 
 followers of the Crucified offered again the sacrifice of Calvary 
 for the souls of men. The astonished natives gazed with 
 silence on the symbol of our salvation, and their ears awaited 
 the teaching which that cross implied. While the naked 
 savages of this new world bowed before the hero sent out from 
 Catholic Spain, another hero, a son of that same Spain, an 
 infant of only one year, lay cradled in his ancestral home, the 
 castle of Loyola. This infant hero was Ignatius of Loyola, 
 the founder of the Society of Jesus. Little did the world 
 dream then, that in less than eighty years, the spiritual sons 
 of Ignatius would water the soil of the new world with the 
 blood of martyrs ! How shall I speak of* this great servant of 
 God? What words of mine can add to the colossal eulogies 
 which he has gained ? What meagre recital of a short hour 
 can do justice to the annals of his order, which contain the 
 history of the world for nearly four hundred years? His 
 voice, and the voice of his children, have echoed through the 
 four quarters of the earth for centuries, — the " Go, teach all 
 nations." 
 
 St Ignatius was born of noble parents, at the ancient castle 
 of Loyola, in the year 1491. Whilst still a child he was placed 
 with one of his aunts in the castle of Arevalo, in the diocese 
 of Avila, where he received a Christian education, and after- 
 wards entered as a page into the Royal Court of King 
 Ferdinand the Catholic. 
 
 His early days were passed among the avocations of the 
 
5 
 
 court, and his mind filled with acquiring the accomplishments 
 which form experts in war and chivalry. Ignatius had the 
 honor inborn with the true soldier, and that quality did him 
 good service in after years when he followed the great banner 
 of his master. 
 
 On the 20th of May, 1521, when thirty years of age, the 
 hand of God reached out to Ignatius, and he fell, dangerously 
 wounded, though fighting bravely, at the seige of Pampeluna. 
 That fall and that wound, were the real resurrection and 
 health to the soul of Ignatius. During the long, weary days 
 of his illness, and while waiting for his wounds to heal, he 
 called for books of light reading to while away the time ; 
 none could be found, and the life of Jesus Christ and the Saints, 
 was given him instead. At first he did not relish such reading 
 
 O 
 
 — his romantic nature craved a very different style — but 
 gradually the great lessons fell upon his soul like dew upon 
 the parched flowers, and when he rose from his bed of pain, 
 it was to follow in the paths of sorrow and self-denial, which 
 he had discovered in the life of Jesus. 
 
 With the year 1522, Ignatius began the practice of a new 
 life. He left his family and friends, and at the shrine of our 
 Lady at Mont Serrat, he laid aside his knightly sword to as- 
 sume the garb of a pilgrim. Then in the cavern at Manresa, 
 he prayed and meditated, and did much penance. There, 
 alone with his God, he wrote those wonderful Spiritual Ex- 
 ercises, which have since been the salvation of countless 
 sinners. 
 
 But, my brethren, we cannot delay to tell all of the acts of 
 Ignatius. You know his life. His own spirit of zeal Was 
 soon communicated to others, and on the 15th of August, 1534, 
 his first four companions and himself pronounced their vows 
 together before the altar at Montmartre in Paris, and on the 
 27th of September, 1540, Pope Paul III. gave his Bull, con- 
 firming the Society of Jesus among the orders of the Church. 
 
 Now began the great work of Ignatius. His Society was 
 approved by the Church, and for the glory of God and honor 
 of that Church, the souls of men were to be rescued from 
 
6 
 
 error. The words of Jesus, " Go, teach," were to be obeyed. 
 Truly, Jesus knows how to raise up men who will carry his 
 words, and at no time was there ever greater need than in 
 those days. 
 
 Luther with his followers was already up in arms against 
 Christ and his Church, and the proud and powerful princes 
 of Europe were opening their courts to the heretical horde. 
 
 The spirit of pride and lust and rebellion had led on a wicked 
 priest to teach the gospel of the Father of lies ; and Ignatius, 
 another priest, came forward with the gospel of the Son of 
 Truth, armed with the buckler of humility, chastity and obe- 
 dience. Within a few years the society of Jesus numbered 
 hundreds of members, men of every degree, and possessed of im- 
 mense erudition and sanctity. They labored in every part of 
 the civilized and barbarian world. Churches, colleges, schools, 
 hospitals, asylums, rose under their zeal in all the countries 
 which they could reach, — and what country cannot such 
 charity reach ? Before the end of the eighteenth century the 
 missionary sons of Ignatius had carried the commission 
 " Go, teach," to nearly every nation of the earth. They went 
 forward like soldiers under the sacred standard of the cross. 
 Brave and undaunted by any obstacles, they fought, not for 
 honors, not for riches, not for comforts, not even for life, but 
 for the glory of God, and the souls of men. Such spirits 
 cannot fail, and everywhere success crowned their labors. 
 " They met with no defeat ; no, not one." Wherever they 
 planted the cross, the peoples of every nation went to gather 
 fruit from that tree of life. From east to west, from north to 
 south, in India and China and Japan, in the heart of Thibet, 
 in the wilds of Africa, " even under the cedar trees of Leba- 
 non," were the words of divine life taught and loved. Brazil 
 and Central America and Mexico, and the slopes of the 
 Pacific, heard from their lips the secrets of salvation. And 
 who were these sons of Ignatius who conquered all before 
 them ? They were the wise, the holy, the noble of every 
 civilized race. No wild fanaticism, no mad enthusiasm, led 
 them on. They were men of great learning and rare gifts. 
 
7 
 
 men of intelligence and prudence, men trained to lead and 
 read the souls of fellow men, by long study of the science of 
 virtue in the school of Christ. Princes and nobles who could 
 grace the courts of kings and converse in the salons of fash- 
 ion, proved themselves equally attractive in the lowly hut of 
 the peasant and in the wigwam of the savage. They bore 
 upon them the royal stamp of the courtiers of heaven. Bish- 
 ops gave up their mitres, cardinals put off their scarlet robes, 
 even kings laid down their crowns, to join this noble band 
 whose livery was the black robe of the poor missionary. All 
 that men esteem of grand and sublime, was the possession of 
 of these teachers. The treasures of literature, the sciences, 
 the arts, languages, history, philosophy, and theology were 
 theirs, and they handed them down as heirlooms in their 
 family, rendered doubly precious by holiness of life. 
 
 Holiness of life ! aye, yes, my brethren, that is the special 
 legacy of Ignatius to his sons ; and before the second centen- 
 nial of his birth was kept, the Church numbered nine canon- 
 ized Saints among his children, with more than eight 
 hundred martyrs. 
 
 What a glorious record ! and how it has been swelled in 
 numbers since then to our own time. Such names as Fran- 
 cis Xavier and Francis Borgia, Aloysius of Gonzaga and 
 Stanislaus Kostka, Peter Canisius and John Berchmans, 
 such alone would give glory to any religious order. But 
 they are the few among many whom Ignatius led to God. 
 
 Not only in distant missions did these teachers work for 
 souls. Every great city of Europe felt the fire of their zeal. 
 They built up, wherever the so-called Reformers had pulled 
 down, the house of Christ. Their colleges vied with the 
 greatest schools of learning in Germany. In France, in 
 Spain, in Portugal, and Italy; in Austria and Bavaria 
 and Bohemia; in Franconia and Swabia and Moravia; in 
 Hungary and the Tyrol ; everywhere, the young were trained 
 to virtue and knowledge; the catechism was explained to 
 the poor, and the sacred tribunal of penance opened to all 
 sinners. 
 
8 
 
 When the revolutions of one country drove them out, they 
 found labors in another; and where they went, the seed of 
 learning and piety fell upon fresh soil to spring up and bear 
 fruit a hundred-fold for the greater glory of God. 
 
 So far, my brethren, we have recounted the glory of Igna- 
 tius' sons in other lands, but the occasion which calls us 
 together, to day, is to commemorate their advent to our own 
 country. And " these are the days never to be forgot, and 
 which all the provinces in the whole world shall celebrate 
 throughout all generations." 
 
 Yes, to-day we celebrate the glad providence which 
 brought such men, imbued with the spirit of Jesus Christ, to 
 us, " to teach all things whatsoever Jesus had commanded." 
 
 As far back as 1566, the Jesuit Fathers had a mission in 
 Florida, and in 1570, fifty years before the Pilgrims came to 
 Plymouth, Father Segura, of the Society of Jesus, obtained a 
 martyr's crown while carrying the gospel of Christ to the 
 Indians on the borders of Chesapeake Bay. These were 
 the seeds of the faith. But in the year 1633, two hundred 
 and fifty years ago, when the Catholic colony under Lord 
 Baltimore settled in Maryland, the Fathers of the Society of 
 Jesus established themselves finally in our land. Many were 
 the vicissitudes and trials through which they had to pass ; 
 persecution and chains and prisons were their portion at times, 
 and banishment from their flocks at others. Even the 
 boasted religious liberty under Lord Baltimore was destined 
 to die an ignominious death, when the cruel intolerance of 
 the English entered in. 
 
 In November, 1789, Pope Pius VI. founded the first Epis- 
 copal See in the United States, and Father John Carroll, a 
 Jesuit, was selected to be the first Bishop at Baltimore. The 
 year before his election Father Carroll had begun the College 
 of Georgetown, which to this clay stands as a proof of the 
 zeal and learning of the Society of Jesus in this country. 
 
 In 1833 the Province of Maryland was established, and the 
 Society of Jesus began its active organized labors in the 
 cause of religion and education. Since that time during the 
 
9 
 
 past fifty years, the Society has spread over our whole coun- 
 try. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to the 
 Gulf of Mexico, it spread out its arms and sent its sons to 
 preach. In 1850 there were in the Province of Maryland, 
 "seventy priests and sixty scholastics employed in different 
 institutions or missions." It had a house for novices at Fred- 
 erick City, in Maryland, with colleges at Georgetown, Wash- 
 ington and Worcester; and the Jesuit Fathers had charge 
 of fifty churches in the dioceses of Baltimore, Philadelphia, 
 Boston, Pittsburg and Richmond, and the Indian missions in 
 the State of Maine. To-day they have more colleges founded 
 in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Jersey City, Buffalo, 
 Boston and Woodstock, and the churches under the charge 
 of the Society are numbered only by the cities within the 
 Province. During fifty years the Society has increased, from 
 a small band in Maryland, to more than eight hundred mem- 
 bers within the United States. 
 
 Is not the finger of God here ? And, my brethren, is it not 
 a happy day for the Church of God, when we can gather to- 
 gather within such a noble temple as this (a monument of 
 the zeal of the Jesuit Fathers), and celebrate the first half 
 century of their work amongst us ? How many souls have 
 been saved through their ministrations during those years ? 
 How many poor have blessed their aid ? How many ignorant 
 have learned by their light ? How many saints have risen 
 from their prayers ? How many young levites have come 
 forth from their schools of learning, to grace the Church of 
 God, and continue the office of evangelizers in the land ? 
 How many Christian laymen, made loyal to God and His 
 Church by the lessons of Ignatius, have done honor to the 
 professions of law, of medicine, and of literature, living proofs 
 of the power of religion in forming worthy citizens ! 
 
 And all these may thank the Fathers of the Society cf Jesus. 
 All these may bless the day and the hour which gave us such 
 guides. 
 
 But, my brethren, 1 am overwhelmed with the gigantic 
 proportions of my theme ; words fail me to express its worth ; 
 
IO 
 
 and the untold number of its historic events defies my power 
 to epitomize. Could we be carried to some lofty mountain 
 top where we might look down, not only upon places but 
 upon ages also, and there behold in one vast living panorama, 
 the spirit and work of the Jesuits from St. Ignatius to our 
 own day, then indeed, perhaps, might we have some fair idea ; 
 but down upon the level of the world's commonplaces, our 
 vision is restricted and obscured. 
 
 From the time that Francis Xavier baptized his thousands 
 in a day, far off among the isles of the East Indies, to the 
 hour when Peter Claver pressed to his bosom the dying black 
 men in the Indies of the West : from the time that Lainez 
 opened his learned lips before the Fathers of Trent, to the 
 hour when De Smet taught Christ in simple words to the 
 Flatheads of Oregon : from the time that Father Martinez 
 laid down his life at the hands of the savage red men of Florida, 
 to the hour when our own Father Baptst was outraged by the 
 civilized white men of Maine ; all the history of the Jesuits 
 forms but one vast chain of events, each so linked within the 
 other, that to speak of one, we are compelled to speak of all. 
 If we mention some fact about the Province of Maryland, we 
 are carried before we are aware of it, into some relation about 
 the Province of Missouri ; a word concerning Louisiana, will 
 be bound with another on the golden slopes of California. 
 
 We speak of missions to the Piscataways of Maryland, and 
 the blood of a De Brebeuf or a Jogues calls out from Ohio or 
 Michigan or New York, to claim some remembrance of the 
 Hurons, the Ottawas and the Iroquois. 
 
 We relate the faith of the Seminoles along the shores of 
 Pensacola, and the credo of the Abnakis echoes back from the 
 Penobscot and the Kennebec. 
 
 We point with just pride to the college and the beautiful 
 churches, which the Society has built up within our own Bos- 
 ton, and the belfry chimes ring out sweetly across the western 
 plains, to remind us that San Francisco boasts of more. 
 
 Where then, my brethren, can our recital stop ? Dare 
 we mention names ? Who shall begin, who shall end the 
 
list ? Ah, my brethren, you know them all. Those who have 
 been your fathers, your counsellors, your guides, right here 
 in the midst of our own city. You know them ; their deeds 
 are their monuments ; your prayers are still their epitaphs ; 
 and the memory of -one of them, whose silvery locks went 
 down in honor to the grave, with nearly a century of merits 
 to crown his life, stands like some snow-capped giant of the 
 Alps, at whose feet the busy hamlets and the verdant vales, 
 drink of the waters from his bounteous bosom. 
 
 Here we must close. The moment is nearing when our 
 sacrifice of praise and thanks will send up its perfume to the 
 throne of heaven. The blood of the thousand martyred sons 
 of Ignatius will blend in crimson harmony with the blood of 
 the Lamb. Not by the sea of Galilee, but from our own altar, 
 the same divine master who said, "Go, teach all nations," 
 will raise his voice to the Father of us all, in blessing and in 
 praise, while the voices of the sainted living and the sainted 
 dead whom Loyola sent to convert the world, will respond 
 from countless missions all over this earth in joyful alleluias. 
 And when the sun has set upon this, our five times golden 
 jubilee, we shall return to our homes and families with joy- 
 ful hearts, repeating — "These are the days which shall 
 never be forgot ; and which all provinces in the whole world 
 shall celebrate throughout all generations."