Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/504



498 THE RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS IN FRANCE.

their zeal, or their love of their fellow men diminished in our own day. The good that they do strikes every eye, and their virtues shine with a brilliance which no accusa- tion, no attack, can tarnish.

In this noble arena in which the religious congregations vie with each other in beneficent activity, those of France, We say it again with joy, occupy a foremost and honorable place. Some devoted to teaching instruct the young in secular knowledge and the principles of religious virtue and duty, upon which public peace and the welfare of States absolutely depend. Others, consecrated to various works of charity, afford effective aid to eveiy physical and moral misery in the numberless houses wherein they tend the sick, the infirm and the aged, the orphan, the deranged, and the incurable, without allowing the danger or unpleasantness of their work or the ingratitude they may meet with to dampen their courage or check their ardor. These meritorious services, recognized again and again by men above any suspicion of favoritism, and time after time, rewarded by public honors, make these congregations the glory of the Church at large, and the particular and shining glory of France, which they have ever nobly served, and which they love, as We have many times seen, with a patriotism that feared not to face death itself with joy.

The disappearance of these champions of Christian charity would, it is evident, bring on the country an ir- reparable loss. By the drying up of such an abundant source of voluntary aid, public misery would be notably increased and, at the same time, an eloquent preaching of brotherhood and concord would be silenced. A society in which so many elements of trouble and enmity are fermenting needs assuredly great examples of self-sacri- fice, love, and disinterestedness. And what is better fitted to raise and pacify men's minds than the sight of these men and woman, who, giving up a happy, distin- guished and, oftentimes, an illustrious position, volun-