Dette2

Differing stories in his biography regarding his recreation

Tannoja, his first biographer, wrote that his parents did not let him do fencing because it was dangerous for body and soul:

"In his old age he mentioned, that at the same time he had been very fond of hunting, but had never indulged in it, except on days when he was dispensed from study, adding, that the birds were fortunate that had to do with him, for, notwithstanding all his endeavors, he rarely killed one. Such were the useful and interesting occupations of the young Alphonsus; and we believe his parents were wise enough to interdict other accomplishments usually taught, and regarded by worldly persons as indispensable. They looked upon dancing as an amusement perilous for the soul, and on fencing, as exposing both soul and body to many dangers." Austin Carroll, another biographer, confirms this by writing: "Dancing and fencing were not among his accomplishments, because they were considered dangerous to his soul."

But the Catholic Encyclopedia article on St. Alphonsus contradicts the above information by saying "Riding and fencing were his recreations..."

Tannoja wrote that when he was a bishop he refused to play the harpsichord for a priest, saying: "What will be said, if I pass my time at an idle instrument, in place of employing it in thinking of my diocese. My duty, and that of every bishop, is to give audience to all, to pray, to study, and never to play the harpsichord." He also regretted spending much time on learning to play the harpsichord, as Tannoja wrote:

"His father, who was exceedingly fond of music, wished him also to excel in that art, and gave orders that he should apply himself three hours daily to the study of it with a master. Thus before Alphonsus had attained his twelfth year, he touched the harpsichord with great skill. In his later years he regretted the time he had spent in acquiring this accomplishment. "Fool that I have been," said he one day, looking at the harpsichord, "to have lost so much time on that; but it was right to obey my father, he would have it so."

However, a short biography of him by James Wallace C.SS.R says, "It's true that in his old age, Alphonsus cautioned his nuns that singing could lead to vanity and also to a waste of time, but he firmly stated that "singing in church is a good thing: it is praise of God. Even when he was in his eighties, Alphonsus could easily be persuaded by his seminarians to play the harpsichord for them in the house of studies at Pagani." (N.B. St. Alphonsus had been released from the care of his diocese before this time, which is why he was then living at Pagani, a house of his Redemptorists outside of his former diocese, St. Agatha of the Goths. Hence the difference in praxis concerning the harpsichord.)

St. Columban

8. For as he was still meditating upon his purpose, he came to the dwelling of a holy and devout woman. He at first addressed her humbly, afterwards he began to exhort her, as far as lay in his power. As she saw the increasing strength of the youth she said : "I have gone forth to the strife as far as it lay in my power. Lo, twelve years have, passed by, since I have been far from my home and have sought out this place of pilgrimage. With the aid of Christ, never since then have I engaged in secular matters; after putting my hand to the plough, I have not turned backward. And if the weakness of my sex had not prevented me, I would have crossed the sea and chosen a better place among strangers as my home. But you, glowing with the fire of youth, stay quietly on your native soil ; out of weakness you lend your ear even against your own will, to the voice of the flesh, and think you can associate with the female sex without sin. But do you recall the wiles of Eve, Adam's fall, how Samson was deceived by Delilah, how David was led to injustice by the beauty of Bathsheba, how the wise Solomon was ensnared by the love of a woman ? Away, O youth ! away ! flee from corruption into which, as you know, many have fallen. Forsake the path which leads to the gates of hell." The youth, trembling at these words, which were such as to terrify a youth, thanked her for her reproaches, took leave of his companions and set out. His mother in anguish begged him not to leave her. But he said : " Hast thou not heard, ' He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me?' " He begged his mother, who placed herself in his way and held the door, to let him go. Weeping and stretched upon the floor, she said she would not permit it. Then he stepped across the threshold and asked his mother not to give way to her grief ; she would never see him again in this life, but wherever the way of salvation led him, there he would go.

Their life had only been preserved by God until they could receive baptism and hence be saved

St. Francis Xavier, May, 1546: "Here (Ambon Island of Indonesia) there are altogether seven towns of Christians, all of which I went through and baptized all the newborn infants and the children not yet baptized. A great many of them died soon after their baptism, so that it was clear enough that their life had only been preserved by God until the entrance to eternal life should be opened to them." Coleridge, Henry. The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier. (1872) pg. 375

Fr. De Smet, Dec. 9, 1845: “I have often remarked that many of the children seem to await baptism before winging their flight to heaven, for they die almost immediately after receiving the sacrament.” Laveille, Eugene. The Life of Father de Smet, S. J. (1915) pg. 93 "… over a hundred children and eleven old people were baptized. Many of the latter [the old people], who were carried on buffalo hides, seemed only to await this grace before going to rest in the bosom of God." Laveille, Eugene. The Life of Father de Smet, S. J. (1915) pg. 172

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 92: "The Huron sorcerers...claimed... the Blackrobes caused people to die by pouring water on their heads; practically everyone they baptized died soon after." Talbot, Francis. Saint Among Savages: The Life of Saint Isaac Jogues

" Among these people was a little child about one year old....It was happily baptized. God preserved its life only by a miracle, it would seem, so that it might be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ and might bless His mercies forever." The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, pg. 51 Fr. Lalemant wrote: "...it has happened very often, and has been remarked more than a hundred times, that where we were most welcome, where we baptized most people, there it was in fact where they died the most ; and, on the contrary, in the cabins to which we were denied entrance, although they were sometimes sick to extremity, at the end of a few days one saw every person prosperously cured. We shall see in heaven the secret, but ever adorable, judgments of God therein. Meanwhile, it is one of our most usual astonishments and one of our most solid pleasures, to consider, in the midst of all those things, the gracious bounties of God in the case of those whom he wishes for himself; and to see oftener than every day his sacred and efficacious acts of providence, which so arrange matters that it comes about that not one of the elect is lost, though hell and earth oppose." The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, pg. 93

St. Columba said: "My sons, today you will see an ancient Pictish chief, who has kept faithfully all his life the precepts of the natural law, arrive in this island ; he comes to be baptised and to die." Immediately after, a boat was seen to approach the shore with a feeble old man seated in the prow, who was recognized as the chief of one of the neighboring tribes. Two of his companions took him up in their arms and brought him before the missionary, to whose words, as repeated by the interpreter, he listened attentively. When the discourse was ended the old man asked to be baptised ; and immediately after breathed his last breath, and was buried in the very spot where he had just been brought to shore.

At a later date, in one of his last missions, when, himself an old man, he travelled along the banks of Loch Ness...he said to the disciples who accompanied him, " Let us make haste and meet the angels who have come down from heaven, and who wait for us beside a Pict who has done well according to the natural law during his whole life to extreme old age : we must baptise him before he dies." Then hastening his steps and outstripping his disciples, as much as was possible at his great age, he reached a retired valley, now called Glen Urquhart, where he found the old man who awaited him. Here there was no longer any need of an interpreter, which makes it probable that Columba in his old age had learned the Pictish dialect. The old Pict heard him preach, was baptised, and with joyful serenity gave up to God the soul which was awaited by those angels whom Columba saw. Montalembert, Charles. Saint Columba: Apostle of Caledonia (1868) pg.63-64

St. Columba preached and worked miracles among the Picts, and, though he spoke by an interpreter, he made converts. One day on the banks of Loch Ness he cried: Let us make haste to meet the angels, who are come down from heaven and await us beside the death-bed of a Pict, who has kept the natural law, that we may baptize him before he dies." He was then aged himself, but he outstripped his companions, and reached Glen Urquhart, where the old man expected him, heard him, was baptized, and died in peace. And once, preaching in Skye, he cried out, "You will see arrive an aged chief, a Pict, who has kept faithfully the natural law; he will come here to be baptized and to die;" and so it was. New Catholic World (1867) pg. 668