John Verseau converted almost every member of a monastery in the neighbourhood of Tripoli, "which had the reputation of being the richest and most numerous of all those which the Greeks possessed in Syria." But this year was still more remarkable for the almost simultaneous conversion of three Greek patriarchs, together with great numbers of their disciples. The patriarch Ignatius, together with Dionysius, the Archbishop of Aleppo, was the first. The archbishop died almost immediately after his reconciliation, from the sufferings which the malice of the Turks inflicted upon him; and the patriarch, who had received eighty stripes on the soles of his feet, only survived him a few months. The last words pronounced by this generous confessor, in the dungeon into which he had been cast, were: "I place myself at the feet of St. Peter and his successors, the Vicars of Jesus Christ on earth." The patriarch of Alexandria sent at the same time his profession of faith and obedience to Pope Clement XI. Cyril, patriarch of Damascus, the most powerful of all the patriarchs of the east, was the last to surrender; but upon receiving a moving exhortation from the Pontiff to follow the example of his brethren, and to "provide for eternal happiness rather than temporal and transient advantages,"* he also yielded to grace, as well as the bishop of Beyrout, and many others. It is said that a single missionary, Father Bernard Couder, had at this time the spiritual charge of "nine hundred families in Aleppo alone;" and but for the persecutions which ensued, and by which many of the missions were scattered, great hopes were entertained of a general reconciliation.

The same incidents have recurred, at various intervals, down to the present day; and, within the present century,

Toulouse, that "although the Mahometan religion was dominant in Egypt, yet the number of Greek, Arab, and Coptic Christians far exceeded that of the Turks. The Christians are almost all heretics and schismatics, and for the most part Eutychians. But it is right to add, that they are more ignorant than heretical. So gross, indeed, is their ignorance, that they neither know what we believe, nor what they believe themselves."-Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, tome iii. p. 167. (ed Lyons, 1819.)

* Ibid, tome i. p. 89.

One of the most interesting subjects of contemplation to a religious mind at this moment, is the condition and prospects

the Church has once more been consoled by the repentance and conversion of another patriarch of Damascus. Having providentially encountered a Catholic priest, long before his elevation to the patriarchate, the young and candid Hiliani acquired early an acquaintance with the Catholic faith. But various considerations delayed the decisive action, which was destined to produce afterwards

of the once powerful Ottoman race. "The Turks," says the estimable superior of the Lazarist congregation at Constantinople, (where the public cemetery, filled with the bodies of the illustrious Jesuits and martyrs, from 1585 to 1756, in the service of plaguestricken slaves, attests at this day the sublime heroism of Catholic charity), "comprehend that their reign is over, and are intimately persuaded that it is reserved to us to gather up the remnants which remain. As much disdain as they feel towards the sectaries, whom they confound in an equal abhorrence with the Jews, so much affection do they manifest towards the Catholics......Damascus, the holy city, in the eyes of the Mussulmen, which heretofore no Christian could enter but with bare head, and the payment of tribute, Damascus has not only ceased to exercise this odious tyranny, but even suffers our religious ceremonies to take place within its walls. From toleration the Turks quickly passed to affection for our worship. Two years since, we saw an entire village of these infidels embrace the gospel, (1838.) We possess even the truth that the Mahometans, who are most capable of appreciating religious questions, are secretly occupied with the study of Christianity. Quite recently a Turk of Damascus summoned a Catholic priest to his death bed, and demanded baptism. The surprise of the missionary was great, on finding him as instructed in the truths of salvation, as he was impatient to receive the sacrament of regeneration. Together with Islamism will also perish the dissident sects, which have only preserved their existence hitherto by means of it, and by purchasing from the fanaticism of the Turks the power to vex us with impunity...... Ignorance alone keeps them separated from the centre of unity. They do not even know what are the points of faith which divide them from the true Church. These erring brothers make the whole of religion to consist in a few exterior practices, which are to them in the place of a creed, and even of prayers. In spite of their antipathy for Catholics, they love our ceremonies, and willingly assist at our sermons. A good number of them come to receive in our schools the instruction which it is impossible for them to procure elsewhere......It is easy to perceive, and past experience no longer permits us to doubt it, that ere long the return of these heretics will console the Church for their defection."-Annales de la Propagation de la Foi; ann. 1840, tome xiii. pp. 107-111.

such great results. The stories industriously propagated by Greek priests, of miracles said to be wrought by their party at Jerusalem and Constantinople, produced a powerful impression upon his mind. In 1820, impelled by an ardent desire to test these pretended miracles, Hiliani set out for Jerusalem. Here he speedily detected the imposture of the so-called "holy fire." The miracle of the "sacred oils," said to be operated at Constantinople, remained still to be examined. Returning to Damascus, he found that the archbishop of that city, his friend and protector, had been promoted to the patriarchate of Constantinople, where he received orders to join him without delay. On his arrival, the ceremony of the benediction of the holy oils was terminated. He was now ordained priest by the patriarch, and attached to his person as grandvicar. Some time after he was summoned to follow him to Damascus, and here he was informed that he was destined for the archiepiscopal see. The fête of the holy oils was about to take place at Mardin, and as he was still unsatisfied about this reported miracle, he refused to accept the investiture. Upon the promise of the patriarch that he would perform the mysterious benediction in his own presence, he submitted to be consecrated archbishop of Damascus, on the 24th December, 1824. The promised ceremony took place at Damascus shortly after," and in spite of the extreme care which they employed to conceal from him the perfidious mystery, he detected the falsehood of the pretended miracle." From this time the archbishop gave himself up to the study of the Catholic religion, and three years after, in 1827, he retired from Damascus to a convent of Syrian Catholics, on mount Libanus, where he abjured his errors, and was received into the Church. He was subsequently appointed Catholic archbishop of Damascus, by Pope Leo XII. The results of his new ministry surpassed the hopes of the most sanguine. Fifteen hundred inhabitants of the numerous villages of Libanus, five priests and a bishop, immediately sought the communion of the Church. And this was only an earnest of his future successes. His former friend, the schismatical bishop of Constantinople, unable to check his apostolical career by other means, had recourse to a policy worthy of a Byzantine patriarch. But when Ibrahim Pacha had rejected his overtures, and positively refused to coerce the five Churches which had submitted to the jurisdiction

of the archbishop of Damascus, the disappointed patriarch is said to have died of mortification and chagrin. The Druses, however, have since acted as the executors of his charitable wishes, and the diocese of Damascus has been ravaged by every species of cruelty and outrage.*

*Vide Le Mémorial Catholique, tome v. p. 155; tome vi. p. 70; and no. 64, p. 145.

While we are writing these lines, the intelligence of fresh conversions in the East has reached Europe. Ibrahim, Syrian bishop of Orfa, in Mesopotamia, writes from that place, February 3, 1847, to Pope Pius IX. that he had just been received into the Church, together with his attendant deacon, by Peter, Catholic patriarch of Aleppo; and expresses to the sovereign Pontiff his hope that he will soon have to " present new sons to the holy Church of God." See his letter in the Univers, 25th July, 1847. The professor of Latin at the only schismatical seminary for the Greek ecclesiastics in Constantinople, (who, it should be added, was a learned German protestant!) has lately embraced the faith, "the spectacle of the disorders and the miseries of the Greek Church having completed the motives of his decision." Univers, 5th August, 1847: The seminary has been since closed in consequence of a general rebellion of the hopeful ecclesiastical students which it contained. M. Etienne, in his memorial upon the style of religion in the East, announces that one of his assistant missionaries, M. Bonnieux, "has reconciled to the Church for his share, one hundred and twenty-two heretics, within a few months. Amongst all these conversions, the most remarkable is certainly that of Mgr. Artin, heretical Archbishop of Nau, in Armenia. The eminence of his talents, joined to the authority of an exemplary life, had caused him to be regarded as one of the firmest columns of the sect, of which he occupied one of the principal sees. The schismatical patriarch of Constantinople often invited him to that capital, to promote by his eloquence the triumph of error...... On the 6th of August, Mgr. Artin was reconciled to the Church in the presence of a multitude of heretics, whom he exhorted to return to the way of salvation. Seven hundred persons of the city of Van, resolved, on hearing the conversion of their chief pastor, to follow his example, and came to Constantinople to receive his instructions. Their sentiments were soon communicated to their co-religionists of the capital; hour after hour they besieged the house of the missionaries, to confer with the Armenian prelate upon the abjuration which they meditated. A little while subsequently to his discourse, the number of those who imitated this memorable conversion was twelve hundred." The miserable patriarch of Constantinople, a worthy disciple of Photius and Michael Cerularius, tried to induce the Turkish government to persecute the noble confessor, but was baffled by the French ambassador.

Successive letters from the east, since the year 1840, have announced the recurrence of similar events; and the history of the other oriental sects corresponds exactly with that of the Greeks.

Amongst the writers of the present age who have examined and described their condition, the first place belongs to the distinguished author of the Correspondance et Mémoires d'un Voyageur en Orient. Profoundly versed in the oriental dialects and literature, M. Eugène Boré was selected, in 1837, by the French minister of Public Instruction and the Academy of Inscriptions, to undertake a scientific mission in the east. How well the honourable office entrusted to him has been discharged, the acknowledgments of the learned societies of France sufficiently testify. But M. Boré was something more than a savant; and having visited the east in the interests of science, he has remained there in the more sacred service of religion. The pitiable spectacle of brothers, bearing the name of christians, but reduced, as to their moral and social condition, almost below the level of their Mahometan masters, awakened his pious compassion. Resolved to make an effort at least for their amelioration, he has abandoned, in great measure, the cherished pursuits of science, and the brilliant prospects of a career already commenced, to labour, in solitude and exile, for the restoration of the unhappy wanderers whom he had visited with another and an inferior object. Ten years passed amongst them, and the most exact knowledge of their respective histories, languages, and customs, are an ample guarantee for the perfect accuracy of the relations to which his own high and eminent qualities add still further weight.

"I am of opinion," says M. Boré," that the character of our times invites every traveller, even though he be but a layman, to act in some sort the part of a missionary.' This sentiment affords a clue to his own generous and holy labours. It reveals also the motive which guided the long and painful researches, from the results of which we gather the following particulars:

In the first place, then, to commence by a general statement, which it will be only too easy to prove by detailed evidence, it appears that not only have the oriental Greeks fallen to such a depth of moral degradation as to present a disadvantageous contrast even with the other sectaries of the east, not only does their own conviction of their fall impel