Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/505



THE RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS IN FRANCE. 499

tarily make themselves the brothers and sisters of the children of the people, practising in their regard true equality by utterly devoting themselves to the disin- herited, the abandoned, and the suffering?

So admirable is the activity of the French congrega- tions that it could not be kept within the frontiers of the country, but has gone forth to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and with the Gospel the name, the language, and the prestige of France. Exiles of their own free will, the French missionaries go out across stormy sea and sandy desert seeking to gain souls for Christ in the most distant and often unexplored regions. They are seen settling amongst savage trilDes in order to civilize them by teaching the elements of Christianity, the love of God and their neighbors, work, regard for the weak, and cleanly li\'ing; and they devote themselves to this without looking for any earthly reward even till death, which is often hastened by fatigue, the difficulties of the Church, or the sword of the executioner. Respecting the laws and submissive to the civil authorities, they bring with them, wherever they come, civilization and peace; their only ambition is to enlighten the less fortu- nate people to whom they devote themselves, and to lead them to Christian morality, and to a knowledge of their dignity as men. Nor is it an uncommon thing for them to make important contribution to science by the help they give to the researches which are being made in such different domains as the study of the differences of race and tongue, of history, the nature and products of the soil, and other questions.

It is, moreover, precisely upon the laborious, patient, and tireless action of these admirable missionaries that the Protectorate of France is founded, which governjiient after government has always been jealous to preserve, and which We Ourselves have publicly acknowledged. The inviolable attachment of the French missionaries to their country, the eminent services which they render