Catholic World (Volume 106)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1918. Excerpt: ... A SAINT FOR SOLDIERS. BY CHARLES PHILLIPS. N the lovely valley of the Indre, within a day's ride of the walls and turrets of the ancient chateau of Chinon, which rises above the river like an island of rock, lies the village of Fierbois, nestled in the wooded country of southwestern France. In this year of 1918 this beautiful spot still remains far removed from the grinding heel of the World War that rages to the north of it, however the bloody long-reaching hand of battle may touch its homes and hearths--as it touches our own, thousands, instead of scores, of miles away. Peace still breathes upon these Touranian fields which Clovis, first King of France, once trod and loved. The forests of fir and oak hereabout have not yet been riddled by shells or cut down by the shrapnel's scythe. At evening the lancet windows of old Chinon still reflect the glories of a sunset which for miles and miles bathes with prodigal loveliness a fair, wide-spreading land of tranquillity and plenty. Yet this whole peaceful scene was once trodden flat in the pathway of Mars. That was in the late Middle Ages, when France was suffering the agony of the Hundred Years' War, and when armed conflict, instead of peace, so like our own terrible and momentous times, became almost the normal state of the civilized world. In those days, as once more in our own, every man was a soldier, and there were few left at home to till the fields and grind the corn--and pray to the saints. But between those days and our own there was a difference, too, as well as a likeness. Only a small percentage of the twentieth century soldiers know anything about the saints; whereas the fighting men of five hundred years ago not only knew the saints, but they had a saint of their very own--one whom they actually carried off to the wars wit...