The psychology of the saints.

  • Joly, Henri, 1839-1925.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The psychology of the saints. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    bourhood of the monastery. St Philip Neri was devoted to his old cat and took the greatest possible care of it. This latter saint is well known, too, for his eccen- tricities (Goethe, who was proud of having him for a patron saint, called them more respectfully “ his whimsical sallies ”). These sallies were, it is true, often full of good sense, as for instance, when the Pope sent him to visit a monastery in the neighbour- hood of Rome in order to examine into the sanctity of a religious, said to be favoured with revelations and ecstasies. The weather was abominable and Philip, who had started on a mule, arrived at the convent, soaked to the skin and covered with mud. The sister was brought to him and she appeared full of sweetness and unction. By way of beginning his theological examination, Philip sat down, held out his leg and said to her, “ Pull off my boots.” The sister drew herself up, scandalised. Philip had seen enough. He seized his hat and went back to the Vatican, to tell the Holy Father that a religious, so devoid of humility, could not possibly possess the graces and virtues she was credited with.1 At other times it was his own disciples and children whom he liked to humiliate in public. If he saw that one of them was rather too pleased with his religious habit, donned for the first time, 1 It seems that in our own times, a similar test has been held sufficient. A certain Rose Tamisier was supposed to be favoured with extraordinary graces. A prudent ecclesiastic came to see her. “ You are the saint, aren’t you?” he said to her. “Yes, Father,” was the answer he got. The illusion was instantly detected.