Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/886

 RETREATS

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RETREATS

thirty days as an indispensable experience before admission to the vows. The custom was introduced

later of repeating this thirty days' retreat during a month of the third probation, and the usage was estabhshed httle by httle of renewing it in an abridged form each year during eight days. This custom ob- tained the force of law by decree of the Si.xth General Congregation, held in 160S, besides being imitated in other religious orders, and encouraged by a Bull of Pope Paul V, 1606.

The Society of Jesus did not reser\-e these exercises for its o^\-n exclusive use, but gave them to commun- ities and individuals. Blessed Peter Faber in his "Memoriale" testifies to having given them to the grandees of Spain, Italy, and Germany, and used them in restoring hundreds of convents to their first fer\-our. A letter of St. Ignatius (3 Feb., 1554) rec- ommends giving the exercises publicly in the churches. In addition, the houses of the Society often contained rooms for priests or laymen desirous of performing the exercises privately. Ignatius, having sanctioned this custom during his lifetime, one of his successors, Aquaviva, exhorted the pro\-incials to its maintenance in 1599. In studj-ing the spread of this practice we must not neglect the influence of St. Charles Borro- meo. The cardinal and the Jesuits co-operated in order to promote this sort of apostolate. A ferv'ent admirer and disciple of the "Spiritual Exercises", St. Charles introduced them as a regular practice among the secular clergy by retreats for seminarians and can- didates for ordination. He built at Milan an ascelcr- ium, or house solely destined to receive those making retreats, whose direction he confided to the Oblates. The zeal of St. Charles was effectual in encouraging the sons of St. Ignatius to adopt definitively the annual retreat, and to organize outside collective re- treats of priests and la>Tnen.

Two other saints furthered the practice. St. Francis de Sales, whose veneration for the Archbishop of Milan and his works is well known, made the retreat, praised it, and made it familiar to the Order of the Visitation, of which he was the founder (Const.XLVI). Then came St. ^'incent de Paul, chosen by St. Francis de Sales to be the spiritual father of the Visitation in Paris. He was the organizer of ecclesiastical retreats in France, the plan of which had been already pro- posed in 1625, at the assembly of the clergj', by a cure of Normandy, Charles Dodefroy, in a small work, entitled "Le college des saints exercises". St. Vincent de Paul established retreats for candidates for ordination first at Beauvais (162S), afterwards at Paris (16.31). They took place six times a year under his direction at the College des Bons-Enfants. Soon other clerics than those of the Diocese of Paris were admitted; and when Saint-Lazarc had been acquired (1634) this house was opened indiscriminately as a retreat for clergj-. nobility, and people. In St. Vin- cent's time about 20,000 persons made retreats there. M. de BcruUe, founder of the Oratory, and M. Olier, founder of Saint-Sulpice, seconded this movement of reform and sanctification. From the middle of the seventeenth centurj-, the sTOodal statutes prescribed that the clerg}' should make a retreat from time to time. Sometimes it was made obligatorj' for those who obtained benefices with the cure of souls. In a word, the retreat was thenceforth an established cus- tom of pious ecclesiastics. In 1663 M. de KerUvio, who knew the excellent results obtained at Saint- Lazare, founded a house of retreat for men at Vannes in Brittany, with the co-operation of P. Huby, S.J. This institution has a special importance in the history of retreats, because the regulations of Vannes generally guided the directors of other houses which the Jesuits established. The.se were at Quimper, Rennes, Nantes, Rouen, Paris, Dijon, Nancy, and soon in iiinst of the large cities of Franci-. Often, besides the house of retreat for men, one would be erected for women; iis at

Vannes, thanks to the Venerable Catherine de FrancheWlle, at Rennes, at Quimper, at Paris, Nantes, etc. With a \-iew to organizing and facilitating re- treats for women, there were formed, particularly in Brittany, congregations of Ladies of the Retreat which are still in existence.

France was not alone in having houses of exercises. They were established in CJermany at Munich and Prague; in Spain, at Barcelona and Gerona; in Italy, at Rome, Perugia, Ancona, and Milan; in Sicily, at Palermo, Alcamo, Mazzara, Termini, Messina, etc.; in Poland, at Vilna; in Mexico, at Mexico City and Pueblo. The enumeration is necessarily incomplete; it should include missionan,- countries, Canada, Chile, China, etc. Nor were Jesuits the only ones to busy themselves with retreats: Franciscans. Benedictines, Lazarists, Eudists, Oratorians, Passionists, Redemp- torists, and others vied with them in zeal. But the suppression of the Society struck a fatal blow at the work in many a countri-. In Brittany, the classic land of retreats, various religious, and principally priests, continued this ministry of the Jesuits. In Franche-Comte a saintly cure, the Venerable Antoine Receveur, organized the Congregation of Christian Retreat to secure for men and women the benefits of spiritual exercises. In Italy, the ^'enerable Bruno Lanteri instituted a society of priests, the Oblates of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who were occupied only with retreats. St. Alphonsus Liguori, who from his youth had followed the exercises among the Jesuits or among the Lazarists, could not neglect this means of apostleship. He adopted it as one of his own prac- tices and prescribed it for the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. Thus the Rederaptorists kept up the custom of retreats in the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily during the second half of the eighteenth centurj'. In Argentina and Paraguay the retreats continued, thanks to the extraordinary initiative given by Maria-.\ntonia de San Jose de La Paz (1730-1799). Aided by several priests and various religious orders, she succeeded in having the exercises performed by nearly 100,000 persons.

.\nnual ecclesiastical retreats began as a general thing in France and other countries in 1S15. Numer- ous promoters of these retreats came from the ranks of the secular clergj- as well as from the regular orders. A large number of directors are annuallj- engaged in giving retreats to the religious communities. Several institutions perform the complete exercises of twentj- to thirtj- daj-s. But there were not only priestlj- or conventual retreats; thej- were made b>- the faithful, grouped in parishes or in congregations, brotherhoods, third orders, etc. Thus retreats are conducted for emploj-ees, working-men, teachers, conscripts, deaf- mutes, etc. We maj- also mention retreats at the close of a course of studj', established in the College of St. Acheul at Amiens in 1S25, and which, spreading bj- degrees, led to the organization of retreats among the alumni, a custom that has become quite general. There has been no lack of co-operation in this great work of regeneration: bishops threw open their semi- naries to the laity, the Christian nobihtj- lent their chateaux; the religious orders — Benedictines, Cister- cians, Carthusians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Lazar- istes, Eudists, Redemptorists, Passionists, the Society of Man,', Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul, and Brothers of the Christian Schools, all encouraged the retreat, either by providing suitable places for the purpose, or by furnishing directors. The Jesuits alone possessed twelve houses of exercises on French territory- before 1901; they now have seven in Belgium and others in Spain, .\ustria, Italy, Holland, England, Canada, United States. Colombia, Chile, and various other countries of .•\mcrica, North and Siulh. They have established houses in .\ustialia, China. India, Cej-lon, and Madagascar. Besides the Breton congregations already spoken of, new societies especiallj' devoted to