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156 liA SOEUR ROSAI/TEi •
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The In The Years Month Of A Of Long Octo...
who , loving good and fearing * evil , felt a yearning to devote thettl > selves to tlie welfare of their fellow-creatures . Had they remained
in their families they "would have been good honest Christians , self only -abnegation distinguished and above iety other . In women the life b of y rather the community more benevolence they still *
remain in dail , y contact p with the world , from which they are only separated by an engagementvery short and very lightsince it is
matel only binding y with the from world year , they to year , yet . live But in while the con thus tinual ming presence , ling inti of
that God whom , they serve in the person of the poor . The other orders of the Roman Catholic churcheven when devoted to
, charitable works , had deemed it impossible to preserve their pristine fervor without attempting to secure it amidst the seclusion of the
cloister and by the aid of perpetual vows . Even St . Francois de Sales was afraid , and changed the plan of life which he had at first '
laid down for his " Filles de la Visitation ? But St . Vincent gave to his sisters , as he himself said , for a monastery the house of the sick ,
for a cell a humble roomfor a cloister the streets of the town ; instead of a grating he p , laced before them the fear of God , and
clothed them with the veil of a holy modesty . And the God whom he trusted proved that he judged rightly . After the lapse of two
hundred years the community which lie founded is more nourishing than ever , and its action extends to the farthest part of the world .
_Whenever Sisters of Charity show themselves , orphans find a mother , the a sistersoldiers a consoler upon the field of battlethe sick
and poor the aged a , succourer upon the bed of death . France , confides to their care her schools , her hospitals , and her asylums : other
Catholic nations have gratefully borrowed the institution , and Lutheran Prussia has organised an order of Protestant Deaconesses
to supply their place . Even the Mussulman learns to tolerate their presence ; in the steep and narrow streets of Algiers the writer has
often seen the blue gown and white cap of the sisters disappearing under the tunnelled passages of that intricate and extraordinary
town . They have charge of the Civil Hospital , where the poor colonists , struck down by the malaria of those fatal plains , so long
gone out of cultivation , are brought to die . Within sight of the hospital is an immense Orphanage , -where destitute orphans and
foundlings , chiefly of Arab parentage , ( but comprising numerous other races ) are reared by the same order . The sight of Christian
women living , in an open community , and devoted to works of practical charity , is one calculated to impress Mahometans with
profound amazement ; and its daily repetition , year after year , must necessarily affect their prejudices in regard to the position of the
female sex more than a thousand written or spoken arguments . It is the drop of water perpetually falling on a stone . We do not
say that there are not two sides to this question , even in Algiers . Between the medical men and the sisters there appears to be a
smouldering division , —feud is too strong a word ,- —the rights of which .
156 Lia Soeur Rosai/Tei •
156 liA _SOEUR ROSAI / _TEi
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1859, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111859/page/12/
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