The news spread like lightning that he was dying; and from all the
neighborhood there poured into Loretto a very stream of pilgrims, old
and young, all anxious to see him once more and to receive his
blessing. So great did the numbers become that it was found
necessary to prevent their entrance into the sick-room. But this had
to be done with the utmost caution; for the dying man himself seemed
pleased to see them all, and had a sweet smile and a kindly word for
every comer.
But at length a man came for whom Gallitzin had no smile. He had
repaid all the good priest's kindness with extreme ingratitude, and
had of late years given way to intemperance and other evil habits.
Him the dying priest looked at sternly, while he lifted up a warning
finger. This silent sermon had a wonderful effect: the prodigal fell
upon his knees, and, weeping bitterly, confessed his wickedness and
promised to amend. He kept his promise. And Gallitzin, on his side,
did not forget him; for on the day of his death, after having a long
time lain still and unconscious, he whispered this man's name. It
seemed to pain him that he had not left him anything, as he had to
his other former servants. Father Lemke caught these words: "Poor
scamp--if it could still be done--not forget him." Father Lemke, of
course, respected the dying wish.
Two days before his death Gallitzin had the consolation of a visit
from another priest, an old friend of his--Father Heyden, of Bedford.
On the evening of the 6th of May the end had come. Father Heyden
said the Prayers for the Dying, while Father Lemke held a lighted
candle in Gallitzin's hand. As the prayers ended Father Lemke felt
that the pulse had stopped and another beautiful soul had flown to
the Feet of its Redeemer. A bystander, gazing at the dead priest,
exclaimed: "Does he not look like a grand old conqueror who had just
won his victory?"
The testimony of one of his fellow priests is too beautiful to be
omitted. Writing three years before Gallitzin's death, he said: "I
do not see much of the venerable Father, for I live twelve miles
distant. Besides he has lived, so to speak, _alone_, for forty-two
years, and he is reserved and self-contained. But he is the noblest,
purest, most Christian man I ever met. He requires to be well
known.... Now that I live without any consolation, and have, thank
God, gained sufficient mastery over self no longer to wish for any
consolation that this world could give me, I believe that _He_ will
come to comfort me who alone can give comfort worthy of the name. We
have abundant proof of this here. For have I not Gallitzin before
me? He gave up everything--everything; and, best of all, he gave
himself. Therefore he now goes about enshrouded in an abiding peace,
and an angel looks out of his calm eyes; and I feel that at any
moment he could lay himself down smiling to sleep his last sleep like
a weary child. Can anything higher or better be striven for or
attained?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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