The Month (Volume 68) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1890. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... I.--CARDINAL LAVIGERIE.1 THE Life of Cardinal Lavigerie has taken us by surprise. We opened it with no expectation of anything more interesting than an official record of the acts of an important episcopate, and we have found a fascinating story. If our readers will begin it on our recommendation, they will not lay the book aside till they come with regret to the end--naturally an abrupt end--of the history of one who is still in the midst of life and work. It is only in exceptional cases that the narrative of the career of a living man can be a success. Freedom of speech is necessary for a biographer, and it is seldom that you can speak freely of a man before his face. Yet here the honesty and sincerity of the narrative is evident, and there is a simplicity in the story that carries you away, so that when you come to the end and have read nothing about illness and death, you are startled as you realize that your hero is still amongst us. Indeed, Cardinal Lavigerie is hardly yet an old man. He is but sixty-four. He was born in 1825; he was consecrated Bishop of Nancy in 1863; in 1867 Pius the Ninth made him the first Archbishop of Algiers; in 1882 Leo the Thirteenth created him Cardinal, and then revived for him the archiepiscopal and primatial see of Carthage. Even for the generation that has seen more archbishoprics created than any that has gone before, this is remarkable, and the life of this great ecclesiastic, who has had the making of two metropolitan sees, is in keeping with these lofty titles and dignities. The colour of his future life was given to Charles Lavigerie by the appointment, which Father de Ravignan and Father Gazarin induced him to accept, of Director of the Society, then newly formed in Paris, for the Promotion of Christian Education in th...