RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 91 



ing that the ignorant and credulous peasantry of southern Italy- 

 should fall into gross f etichism of this sort ; the astonishing thing 

 is that the priests of a Church which sends missionaries to Africa 

 should encourage such crass superstition at home, and, instead of 

 seeking to enlighten the minds of the masses, should march in 

 procession to the scene of the supposed miracle with banners and 

 censers, singing hymns and chanting litanies, and displaying all 

 the pomp and paraphernalia of an imposing religious ritual in 

 confirmation of a vulgar delusion. 



In August, 1894, the population of one of the suburbs of Vi- 

 enna was thrown into intense excitement by the rumored appari- 

 tion of the Virgin Mary, who was said to have been seen at 

 sundry times sitting on the branch of a tree in an old cemetery 

 and holding the child in her arms. The throng became so great 

 as to require the intervention of a squadron of police in order to 

 prevent a complete interruption of the city traJBBc. ISTot only was 

 the reality of the supernatural appearance generally believed, but 

 several persons turned it to practical account by noting the exact 

 time of the occurrence, hour, day, month, and year, so as to secure 

 lucky numbers for the lottery, and even attributed the presence 

 of the police to the anxiety of the Austrian Minister of Finance 

 lest, by a happy combination of these numbers, some one should 

 win a tern and thus deplete the state treasury. A workman from 

 a neighboring factory, who chanced to pass by, endeavored to 

 demonstrate the impossibility of such phenomena, and urged the 

 crowd not to give credence to idle tales of this sort ; but this 

 laborer was the only one who acted the part of Paul on Mar's Hill 

 and reproved the multitude for being " too superstitious." Not a 

 representative of the clergy, from the humblest ecclesiastic to the 

 highest dignitary of the Church, has ever been known to improve 

 occasions of this kind for the religious instruction and intellectual 

 elevation of the people. Indeed, it would be difficult for them to 

 do so, in view of the fact that the literature which the Catholic 

 Church still publishes and disseminates for the promotion of 

 piety consists chiefly of similar legends ; and it would not sur- 

 prise us if a full and authentic account of the Vienna apparition 

 should appear in the columns of the Innsbriick periodical. Monthly 

 Roses to the Honor of the Immaculate Mary, Mother of God, as 

 an incentive to more ardent adoration of the Virgin. 



Some years ago, in the month of May, I was walking up the 

 Ludwigstrasse, in Munich, with a German friend well known as 

 a genial poet and earnest Catholic. Just then a procession of 

 maidens dressed in white, with wreaths of flowers on their heads 

 and an image of the Virgin borne aloft, came out of the church 

 and passed through the garden, in which are the stations with 

 Fortner's frescoes representing the life and passion of Christ. 



