Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 16.djvu/68

 LEOPOLDINE

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LEROY-BEAULIEU

Monthly", and remained in that position two years, leaving it for newspaper work in Boston and New York. His contributions to the periodical and daily Press were varied and voluminous. In 1883 he founded the American Copyright League, which finally secured the international copyright law. He was also one of the founders of the Catholic Summer School of America. In March, 1891, he and his wife became CathoUcs, and were received into the Church at New York. After his death his widow, as Mother M. Alphonsa, organized a community of Dominican tertiaries. The Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer Patients, who took charge of two cancer hospitals at New York. Among his published works are: "Rose and Rose-tree" (1875), poems; "A Study of Hawthorne" (1876); "Afterglow" (1876), a novel; "Spanish Vistas" (1883), a work on travel; "New- port" (1884), a novel; "Dreams and Days'* (1892), poems; "A Storj' of Courage" (1894), centenary his- tory of the Visitation Convent, Georgetown, D. C. He edited (1883) a complete, and the standard, edi- tion of Hawthorne's works, and adapted "The Scarlet Letter" for Walter Damrosch's opera of that title, which was produced at New York in 1896.

Tke Catholic Reading Circle Rei'iew_(April, 1898); The Catholic News; The Freeman' s Journal (New York), contemporary file?.

Thomas F. Meehan.

Leopoldine Society, The, established at Vienna for the purpose of aiding the Cathohc missions in North America. When the Society for the Propaga- tion of Faith was founded at Lyons, in 1822, it did not spread beyond the French borders for a consider- able time. Other nations were not unwiUing to co- operate, but were deliberating whether to start a simi- lar society of their own or to join the one already in existence. At this time, in 1827, Bishop Fenwick of Cincinnati, Ohio, sent his vicar-general. Father Rese, to Europe to recruit German priests and to obtain assistance for his diocese. Father Rese reached Vienna in the latter part of 1828. He was received everywhere most cordially and inspired those with whom he came in contact with a great interest in the American missions. His graphic descriptions of the New World, the great possibilities for the Church, the scarcity of priests, and the pre- vailing poverty of the missions awoke a general public interest in the welfare of the American mis- sions. To strengthen this feeling and encourage the formation of a society similar to the French society he published a description of the Diocese of Cincin- nati ("Abriss der Geschichte des Bisthums Cin- cinnati in Nord-America", Vienna, 1829), an excerpt from Father Theodore Badin's work. The Arch- bishop of Vienna, Leopold Maximilian Graf von Firmian, was so well disposed towards the noble undertaking that he brought it to the notice of the imperial family. Father Rese was granted an audience with the emperor, whose brother, Arch- duke Rudolph, Cardinal Archbishop of Olmutz, assumed the protectorate of the missionary work.

The sanction of the Church was next obtained. Leo XII in the Bull "Quamquam plura sint", dated 30 Jan., 1829, approved of the nascent society. Meanwhile the founders were busying themselves with the internal workings of the society. A public meeting was held on )3 March, 1829, at the archi- episcopal palace. Canon Joseph Plctz, of the Metro- politan Church of St. Stephen, spoke on the propaga- tion of the Gospel and its civilizing influences upon the nations of the world. A month later, 15 April, 1829, the statutes wore adopted. These were drawn up much after the pattern of the I'rcnch .soi-icly. The only (iivergent points which need be mentioned were that the society was to be known as tlu! Leopoldine Society — Leo|)oldinen Stiftung — to per- petuate the memory of the Emjircss of Brazil, LcoiioUlina, a favoiu'ite daughter of Francis I and

wife of Pedro I; and that the society should exist only in Austria-Hungary. On 13 May, 1829, the first executive session was held. A pamphlet was designed and in it incorporated the oration of Canon Pletz together with the statutes and the correspond- ing regulations. This brochure was translated into all the languages spoken in the monarchy. The head office was estabUshed in the Dominican monastery and Herr Anton Carl Lichtenberg became its first actuar}' and Dr. Caspar Wagner its treasiu'er.

The seed was sown. Five kreutzers a week — about two cents — was a small contribution; however, little by little the fund commenced to swell so that from July to October, 1830, the collection amoimted to $19,930. On 30 April, 1830, a first draft of $10,256.04 was sent to Bishop Fenwick and four months later a second one of $5200, "to afford ample help and not to deal out the money in small bits and give reUef practically to nobody" (Berichte der Leopoldinen Stiftung, I). The general interest awakened by the society for the American missions not only brought out funds but donations of church utensils, Mass paraphernalia, paintings, statuary, etc. These objects were often donated by members of the imperial house. Directly due to the society were many vocations to the missions from among the priesthood. First amongst these was the Rev. Frederic Baraga, afterwards Bishop of Marquette. His example was foOowed bj' Neumann (afterwards Bishop of Philadelphia), Hatscher, Sanderl, Viszoczky, Belleis, Pisbach, Hammer, Kundeck, Cvitkovich, Schuh, Levic, Pirec, Skolla, Godec, Krutil, Veranek, Burg, Buchmayr, Bayer, Hasslinger, Count Couden- hove, Mrak (afterwards Bishop of Marquette), Skopec, Etschmann, and many others — all of whom entered the missions before 1850.

The beneficiaries of the society are principally the dioceses in the United States. Among the older ones Cincinnati has been most bountifully considered, but St. Louis, Bardstown, Charleston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Mobile, Boston, Detroit, New York, New Orleans, Nashville, Dubuque, Natchez, Vincennes, Richmond, Pittsbiu'g, Chicago, St. Paul, Hartford, Milwaukee, Marquette, Galveston, Little Rock, received generous support. Then, besides the travel- hng expenses of the different missionaries and personal aid to them, religious communities were enabled with the society's assistance to send workers to the New World. The society's fund built numerous schools and churches and enabled many a zealous priest to devote his life to the missions, kindling and keeping the light of faith in the hearts of men who otherwise must have hved and died without it. The Leopoldine Society expended upon the American Catholic mis- sions, "from 1830 to 1910, the sum of 3,402,211 kronen (about 680,500 dollars). The society still exists and although its collections are small it continues its mission. The contributions chiefly come from the Austrian emperor, the Dioceses of Vienna, Sankt Polten, Brun, Seckau, Prague, Koniggriitz. Eighty- one official reports, "Berichte der Leopoldinen Stiftung", have appeared. These are replete with the struggles and glories of the American missions and missionaries and invaluable for data in the American church history.

Fondazione Leopolditia (Vienna, 1829); Berichte der Leopoldinen Stiftung (Vienna, 1831-1910).

Antoine Ivan Rezek.

Leroy-Beaulieu, Anatole, French publicist, b. at Li.-iieux, Calvados, in 1S42; d. at Paris, 15 June, 1912. After publishing in 1866 a romance entitled "Une troupe de coniediens", a kind of historical romance dealing willi the Italian risnrgimctilo, lie directed his attention to political and historical studies. His articles on Napoleon 111, Victor Ennnanuel, and Pius l.\, collected in 1S79 in a volume entitled " Un empereur, un roi, un papc, une restauration", are