A brief Journal of what passed in the City of Marseilles, while it was afflicted with the Plague, in the Year 1720Pichatty de Croislainte
History
A brief Journal of what passed in the City of Marseilles, while it was afflicted with the Plague, in the Year 1720
Pichatty de Croislainte
Plague -- France -- Marseille -- Early works to 1800
He is not satisfied with prostrating himself at the Feet of Altars,
and lifting up his Hands to Heaven to beseech God to mitigate his
Wrath; his Charity is active; he is every Day in the open Streets,
through all Quarters of the Town; he goes up to the highest and worst
Apartments of the Houses to visit the Sick; crosses the Streets among
the dead Bodies; appears in the publick Places, at the Port, at the
Ring; the poorest, the most destitute of Friends, those afflicted the
most grievously and hideously, are the Persons to whom he goes with
most Earnestness; and without dreading those mortal Blasts which carry
Poison to the Heart, he approaches them, confesses them, exhorts them
to Patience, disposes them to die, pours celestial Consolations into
their Souls, representing to them the Felicity of Suffering and of
Poverty; and drops every where abundant Fruits of his generous Charity,
distributing Money where-ever he goes, and especially in secret to
indigent Families, whom holy Curiosity prompts him to seek out and to
relieve; he has already given away Twenty five thousand Crowns, and
takes up what Money he can upon Pledges, to enable him to distribute
more. But I should not blaze abroad what his Humility is careful to
conceal, it ought to be left under the Veil which that Virtue throws
over it.
Death has spared this new _Charles Borromeo_, but has continually
surrounded him, and almost mowed under his Feet: The Plague gets into
his Palace, the greatest Part of his Officers and Domesticks are struck
with it; he is obliged to retreat into the House of the first President
at _Marseilles_; the Plague pursues him thither, and not only attacks
the rest of his Domesticks, but Two Persons who are very dear to him
for their distinguished Merit, and are his Assistants in his holy
Labours, Father _de la Fare_ a Jesuit, and M. _Bourgeret_ Canon of
_la Major_; the first escapes, but he has the Grief to see the other
expire: All this however does not terrify him, nor with-hold him one
Moment from any of the Duties of his fervent Charity; he goes every
where still to visit the Infected.
But the Plague destroys too fast for the surviving Remnant of
Confessors to perform all the Service necessarily required: A greater
Number of Workmen should be had; wherefore the Canons of the Collegiate
Church of St. _Martin_, and some of that of _Acoules_, who have
Benefices with Cure of Souls, and who have fled, are those the Bishop
recals, to come and confess, each within the Bounds of his parish.
The Sheriffs, who observe all those Parish-Priests are deaf to the
Voice of their Bishop, and unconcerned for the Loss of the Souls of
their Parishioners, present a Petition to the Bishop, to order them by
an Injunction to return forthwith to their Duty; in default of which
their Benefices to be declared vacant, and other Persons qualified to
fill them, to be nominated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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