The Open court . gious sentiments. Zaccaria of Cremona was the founder of the order of Bar-nabites and died a natural death at thirty-seven. Fourier, a French-man, was a parish priest and reformed a little congregation ofCanons. Could two such obscure servants of God be raised to therank of saints by such a theatrical ceremony, a ceremony whichcontained nothing mystical whatever? It is such a proceeding as THE CANONISATION OF TWO NEW SAINTS. 523 this that weakens the religious sentiments. Certainly it does notstrengthen them. Le Sar Peladan a little while ago remarked that we are livingin an e
The Open court . gious sentiments. Zaccaria of Cremona was the founder of the order of Bar-nabites and died a natural death at thirty-seven. Fourier, a French-man, was a parish priest and reformed a little congregation ofCanons. Could two such obscure servants of God be raised to therank of saints by such a theatrical ceremony, a ceremony whichcontained nothing mystical whatever? It is such a proceeding as THE CANONISATION OF TWO NEW SAINTS. 523 this that weakens the religious sentiments. Certainly it does notstrengthen them. Le Sar Peladan a little while ago remarked that we are livingin an epoch in which the intellectual classes no longer believe insaints. But this observation is such a commonplace that Le SarPeladan deserves no merit for uttering it. Now, it is certainlynot by creating new saints with a display so theatrically grotesqueas that which took place in St. Peters on the 27th of last May thatthe faith in saints is reinforced. In the procession of the Sanctification there were two enormous. Antonio Maria Zaccaria, of of the Order of Barnabites. Canon-ised at St. Peters, May 27, 1897. Pierre of a Congregation of Canons. Can-onised at St. Peters, May 27, 1897. banners, one for each saint. On these two banners were paintedthe figures representing the miracles performed by them. Therewere figures of persons instantaneously cured of incurable diseasesby the intercession of the young priests, at that time Maria Zac-caria or Fourier. Now to-day no one believes in miracles, becausenone of us has seen one, and science denies that a single case ofmiracles can be verified. Science explains these pretended mir-acles as phenomena of hallucination or of illusion, much more likelyto happen in past centuries when the masses were profoundly ig-norant. What prestige could the new saints Zaccaria and Fourier, 524 THE OPEN COURT. to whom were attributed miraculous deeds to-day considered im-possible, acquire in the eyes of the mass of believ
Size: 1925px × 1298px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade188, booksubjectreligion, bookyear1887
