On 27 February 1912, the Revd Dr Adrian Fortescue, writing to a blue-stocking friend, Mrs Courtenay Crickmer, explained
"Our Apostolick Lord [S Pius X] is going to die this year, which is really the best thing he can do. A holy nun has had a revelation, saw all the heavenly host crying 'Come long, Pius Puss, Puss Pius'. So he's got to go. When I am pope I shall canonize the nun."
S Pius in fact lasted until 20 August 1914, so, the vision not having been proved veridical, 'Pope S Adrian VII' would have been able to wriggle out of his ... er ... rash undertaking.
Oh ... the naughty, naughty, man!!
How might an equally naughty modern fantasist, if such an improbable person existed, update Sister's (rather iffy) vision? "Franky duckie, duckie Franky"? Or should it be in Patagonian Welsh? Is that what they speak in Argentina?
h/t to Fr Aidan Nichols' biography of Fr Fortescue. Well worth reading. Tons of good stuff.
"The Little Pink Daughters of the Penitent Thief" linger in the mind, certainly...
ReplyDeleteA priest once told me of something his old seminary Professor of Scripture said about giving retreats to nuns. The Professor allegedly remarked that "the poor dear sisters do tend to take Scripture so literally ... but, then again, it does seem to make saints of so many of them!".
ReplyDeleteWhere I live, Thomas, many of the sisters in the dying congregations that imbibed the spirit of the age on the 60s have demythologised the Scriptures until there is practically nothing left.
ReplyDeleteA decently-stocked Catholic library might be the most practical source for the Nichols Fortescue biography: it is currently out of print and retailing (on Amazon and Abebooks) at a minimum of £70 for a used secondhand paperback copy...!
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