Frances Mary Buss and her work for educationRidley, Annie E.
History
Frances Mary Buss and her work for education
Ridley, Annie E.
Buss, Frances Mary, 1827-1894
“I am constantly in a state of thrilling emotion arising from
the associations, and one thing overpowers another. One was
quite speechless at the sight of the ancient inscriptions from
the tombs of the early Christians. It was a thrilling thing to
see a man like the Pope, whose office is so ancient and so
sacred, even to those Christians who do not agree with him.
“It was really awe-striking to stand in rooms used by Augustus,
by Livia and by Drusus; in the case of the latter the frescoes
are as fresh as if done a few months since....
“I wonder if I shall ever have the delight of introducing you to
the world of wonders concentrated in Rome?”
My own memories of her in Rome are curiously comprehensive of the whole
range of interest in the Eternal City: heathen, Christian, mediæval,
artistic, patriotic; in each and all of which she was equally at home.
On our first Sunday afternoon we had gone to the Palatine, first pausing
to try to imagine the splendour of Nero’s Golden House, before we went
on to stand at the bar where St. Paul must have stood before the Cæsar
to whom he had made appeal. A portion of the marble rail stands now as
it stood then, and there we tried to picture that memorable scene. Miss
Buss described to us how the heathen Court of Justice had become the
Christian Church, and so vivid was the whole impression that to this
moment I can still see the graceful careless emperor, in the centre of
the semicircle of fawning, sneering courtiers, all making merry at the
claim to Roman citizenship of this mean Jew; with some pride too, no
doubt, at the far sweep of the Roman power to which her most distant
subject could appeal and not in vain.
As we stood there, lost in the past, there came a sudden clash and clang
of all the church bells in Rome—once there had been one for each day in
the year—and all the blue air was full of sound. Here was the echo,
still clear and strong, of the message of the despised Christian, while
of Nero’s Golden House there is not a single trace.
Again, we are standing on the terrace in front of St. Gregorio, and seem
to watch the descending figure of the monk Augustine—our Saint of
Canterbury—as he had just received the blessing of the Great Gregory,
and was departing on his mission to those fair-haired Angles who are so
like—and so unlike—the angels. Then we turn into the refectory, where,
day by day, the saint entertained his twelve poor pilgrims, and we hear
how to his large charity was given the grace of entertaining angels
_not_ “unawares,” since, on the face of one of his guests whose special
need had called out special service, the faithful servant saw a light
which showed him that the Master of the Feast Himself was there in very
truth:—
“Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,
Himself, his hungry neighbour, and _Me_.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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