the text: the house of the sacred heart during the war
TRANSCRIPT
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The text:
The House of the Sacred Heart during the War
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Estas «notas», señala Andrè Perroux scj, están contenidas en cuatro cuadernos escolares llamados 'Quaderno', de tapa azul, formato pequeño, escritura autógrafa del Padre Dehon, paginación continua. Se hallan en el archivo dehoniano de Roma: AD B 40/6 (1–4). Inv. 676.00. Fueron escritas durante la guerra de 1914-1918 o inmediatamente después: un texto breve, escritura rápida, redacción espontánea con algunos tachones. Son un valioso complemento a otros cuadernos, como «Notes Quotidiennes», «notes de lectures» o retiros, y a la correspondencia poco abundante que se ha conservado de los primeros años de la guerra. El texto se numera tomando los cuatro cuadernos como un solo documento, siendo correlativa la numeración de páginas. Son los números que aparecen entre corchetes. Así mismo presentamos una doble anotación: en número arábigo en superíndice la referencia al comentario redaccional y gráfico, que pretenden ampliar las referencias hechas por el P. Dehon en su texto; y en cuadro lateral al texto algunas referencias al Diario (NQT) de Dehon durante este tiempo.
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[NOTEBOOK 1]
[1] Some notes on the House of the Sacred Heart in Saint Quentin
during the war
I. Before the occupation
At the end of July 1 returned from
a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Albert1 and a
visit to the shrines at Arras2 and Cambrai3
in the company of two Dutch scholastics,
Frater Meyer4 and Frater Govaart5.
Since that time what has become of
these two interesting churches? The
basilica at Albert was a marvel of modern
design, everything is going to have to be
redone.
On the 1st of August6 the war began. My two young men were going
to be blockaded; they took the last train which allowed them to get back to
Holland7.
Normally, I would have [2] had only Father Urbain8 and
Brother Objois9, here with me at Sacred Heart because the laws
of expulsion were still in full force. But circumstances have
brought me an entire community. Father Black10 came to live
with us so that he could carry out his duties as the chaplain at the
former boarding school of la Croix11. He brought along his cook,
Madame Charpentier, and later a minor seminarian, Henri
Vivier. Father Devrainne12, the Bontemps brothers13 and
Delvigne14 were in Saint Quentin for their vacations. They came
to stay with us. Father Burg15 went to Argentan for his military
service; he took along a military jacket, then he sent it back to
me a few days later because the minister Massimy17 thought that
they had too many recruits.
Father Comte18, who had been sent to reorganize Amiens19, also came
to us.
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[3] Brother Roy20, like a typical impetuous 20 year-old, had rushed up
from Clairefontaine21 to enlist, even though he had only two fingers on his
right hand, but the recruiting office was no longer in operation. So Roy also
remained with me. Counting the young house boy, that added up to thirteen
people including me.
Father Comte went to keep Father Mathias22 company and to serve as
the parish priest at Fayet23; so there were twelve of us left.
The news was becoming worrisome. Austria made the first declaration
of war against Serbia, then Germany against Russia.
The newspapers were taking sides. We had some vague inkling about
the terrible sufferings in Belgium24 and the retreat of our army.
Many Belgians were fleeing [4] to Holland and France. The last train
arrived from Quévy25. It passed through Saint Quentin without stopping.
Someone saw Father Gilson26 sitting on the edge of a freight car under the
shade of his umbrella. He sent me a telegram from Paris. lf he received my
telegram, it would have been the last one sent from Saint Quentin on the
26th.
The personnel from the post office, the bank, and the government have
fled to Paris. Our newspapers have stopped printing, there was anxious
anticipation.
[5] II. The arrival of the German battallons, 28 August.
The only defense the city had was the 10th territorial regiment27, made
up of local citizens, fathers of families, who had no military training nor any
artillery.
They put up a semblance of defense along the roads from Cateau and
Guise28. Some of them were killed, many fled. Captain Jean Lécot29, our
former student, saved his Company by retreating in time toward the
Somme30.
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At 4 in the afternoon, to the sound of fifes and drums, regiments were
heading down Rue Saint-Jean31 and Rue d’Isle32 toward the center of the city.
We came out of the house to see what was happening. Some people said:
“They are British”. But
no, they were Germans.
Some of the territorial
regiment raced toward
the barracks. [6]
The Germans, good marksmen, shot them as they made their way. I
saw one of them fall on Rue Antoine Lécuyer33. It was time to go back inside.
Soon there was a knock on our door. It was the parish priest from
Maissemy34, who was crying out: “Open up, I say! Open up!” Then someone
from the territorial regiment of Flavy35, came in, dressed in civilian clothes,
and another person who was well known to us, Louis Hiver, who had been a
ten or eleven year-old student at Saint Clement's school.
I encouraged the fellow from Flavy to calmly return home since he
was wearing civilian clothes, and I kept Louis Hiver with us. He left his
guard post at Lesdins36. He had gotten rid of his military uniform at a little
restaurant where they gave him some old civilian clothes. He was going to
be our guest for a whole year.
[7] The German army was staying in the city. For my part I had three
doctors or surgeons. It was only for one night. They brought with them a
beautiful filet which was cooked for them, then they went to bed. The
soldiers were carousing everywhere in the city and were going about
everywhere asking for something to eat and drink.
At midnight, a great racket at the
front door, a group of drunken soldiers
were calling out: “Champagne!
Champagne!”
Objois kept his wits about him, he told them: “Wait, I’ll call the chef.”
They seemed to understand that and replied: “Ja, the chef! the chef!” There
was probably a waiter among them who thought he was referring to the Head
Chef. But Objois ran to wake up one of the [8] majors who yelled back:
“Enough! Enough!,” together with a phrase that meant: “Leave us alone, or
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else!" The party was over. The soldiers ran off and we could get back to
sleep.
The next day my three majors left: “We’re going to
Paris,” they told me.
Some days later they
passed through
Saint Quentin again
and did not come
back to stay with us;
they probably would
have been
embarrassed to tell
us what they had seen in Paris.
When they were leaving, once more they said to me: “Well, have we
behaved like barbarians?” They were happy to point out that their regiment
did not behave like those who were terrorizing Belgium.
[9] III. After the battle of the Marne: 15 September
The vast invading army had advanced as far as Paris. The government
withdrew to Bordeaux37. Meaux38 was threatened, Saint-Denis39 set up
barricades. But God had merciful plans for France, he wanted to give her
time to come back to him.
This was what took place in the first days of September, what has been
called the miraculous battle of the Marne40.
Divine intervention was not doubted by people of faith. Our leading
generals - Castelnau, Pau, and Joffre41- had prayed.
The shrine of Montmartre which towered above the battlefield was the
expression of a people of faith.
[10] There was also talk of an apparition of the Blessed Virgin42.
There was something mysterious hovering over this battle which would
decide the fate of France and which was the greatest battle the world had
ever seen.
The invaders were in disarray. They retreated 50 to 60 kilometers a
day. Amiens, Reims, and Soissons43 were liberated. Saint Quentin has
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remained. occupied. We received some newspapers from Paris, we read the
description of the battle by Albert de Mun45 in the Écho de Paris44. The wave
of invaders withdrew back to Saint Quentin, but the city was not liberated.
The 15th of September was a day of hope. The French cavalry with an
artillery battery46 was set up in Fayet. The canons [11] were behind Saint
Clement’s house, near the monument of 187047. One of our students, Louis
Girardin, was there, and he gave directions to the gunners who aimed their
tire towards the barracks in Saint Quentin. Our house of the Sacred Heart
was coming under threat. We went down to the cellar, but only tor a brief
while, just enough time to say a rosary. The Germans were becoming
apprehensive, but we did not have enough troops at Fayet. Our fate was
sealed that day, the city was going to be occupied indefinitely.
Young Louis Girardin scampered an around on
his bicycle. Nobody bothered him. One day he went
all the way to La Capelle. He was welcomed at my
brother's house. [12] He brought us the news that
some French reconnaissance patrols had gone as far
as Hirson48.
We have since learned that Father Joseph
Paris49 had come on foot from Quévy to see his
elderly father, but the Germans did not let him to
enter the town.
The retreat of the German forces brought thousands of wounded to
us50. For a long time Saint Quentin was going to be the great German field
hospital and the little capital of the occupied territories.
[13] IV. The field hospitals51
A number of field hospitals were being set up.
The main facility would be in the Courthouse52. Its
beautiful rooms are elegant, on two occasions Kaiser
Wilhelm53 came there to offer his encouragement to
the wounded.
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The beautiful Vauban room had many of the French wounded, the
ladies of the Red Cross were caring for them.
The high school and the Thellier school have been turned into large
German field hospitals.
At Holy Cross boarding school there is one room for the Germans and
another for the French. Two of our scholastics, Bontemps and Roy, are
nurse's aides, they have spent more than one night there. Father Black
administered the sacraments to the dying, he even gave them in good faith to
an Algerian who [14] had not been baptized.
There are special field hospitals for specific illnesses. Saint John’s
School54 is reserved for those who have suffered a nervous breakdown due
to the violence of the canon fire. Poor Saint John's, turned into a madhouse!
One deranged officer threw himself from a third floor window!
We need special armbands to enter the field hospitals. On Sundays I
put one on to go say mass at the private clinic of the Sisters of Saint Erme.
What somber processions through our streets! Ambulances bring the
wounded in to a booking office near the Courthouse and from there they are
sent to the different field hospitals according to the gravity of their wounds.
[15] On some days there are so many of them that no one knows where
to put them. They are left on the grounds of the high school courtyard around
the statue of poor Henri Martin55, until room has been made for them in the
field hospitals by sending the wounded who can be moved to the train station,
who then will go to be cared for at Le Nord, Maubeuge, and as far as
Cologne56.
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10 Each major field hospital has its own chapel and its
chaplain. As a result, we see that our Lord is coming back
into the high school and the general hospital from which
he had been evicted by the radicals and the socialists.
The Courthouse and the Thellier school have their chaplains. The
Germans have skilled surgeons [16] who even lend their skills to perform
operations on French civilians.
The house of the Sacred Heart is surrounded by field hospitals and
their annexes. On several occasions the request was made to allow the
wounded to walk on the grounds of our house. We asked the kind assistance
of the Franciscan sisters, and so we have been able to remain in our house.
All the neighboring houses on Ave Antóine Lécuyer, those belonging
the notary Guiard-Latour, and the Fouquier and Marlier sisters, have been
requisitioned in order to set up specialized clinics there.
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[NOTEBOOK 2]
[17] V. Priests and chaplains
The Germans had many chaplains57, at the front, both Catholic priests
and Protestant pastors, in fact they had more chaplains than us. All their
soldiers go to services on Sunday.
They borrowed our churches for the Protestant services as well as for
the Catholic. For them it is an exercise, just like any other; they go because
it is a rule. I don’t find fault with that. If you are soldiers, the government
does not assume that you have denied your baptism, so it takes you to church
on Sunday. Religion is a natural right, man is a religious animal.
With us, it’s up to the soldier, and he seldom goes to mass. The
Germans criticize us for that. But when their men are not taken to mass,
which happens when they are prisoners [18] in France, they soon stop going.
Human respect takes hold of them, just as it holds back our own soldiers.
Among the chaplains there are some who are good and some who are
very good. There are also some oddities and some regrettable incidents. At
Saint Quentin the official chaplains were proper. The Franciscans in the field
hospitals were zealous men, studious, and openminded; they did many favors
for us. Father Raymond58 was scholarly, he has published many highly
regarded pamphlets on our cathedrals.
A chaplain from the front, a Father de Steilh, was a man of God, who
came on several occasions to see me. He saw a defiant challenge to God in
the fact that many of our streets were dedicated to unbelievers. I explained
to him what I thought of the petty chauvinism [19] and the exaggerations of
the Cologne Gazette.
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These chaplains were exercising truly extraordinary powers: saying
several masses on the same day, absolving an entire regiment which was
heading to the front, and giving all the men holy communion after dinner.
Lacking a sufficient number of ciboria, they consecrated the hosts in
cigar boxes; they could have found something better.
Some of them, even the religious, have allowed themselves to be swept
along by the tide of popular opinion that does away with morality during the
time of war. A religious of one of the large orders sent books to his monastery
that he had carefully selected from the libraries of priests. Another one went
to a church supply store in Saint Quentin and took a chalice worth eighty
francs [20] and paid only twenty francs. “That’s war,” he said. And with that
they justified everything.
They were astonished to see that there was so much faith, so many
convents, and so many priests in France.
Their newspapers in Cologne and elsewhere had so often told them
that France was a rotten and godless nation!
The chaplains of Saint Quentin wanted to send the sacred objects in
our chapels to Maubeuge59. My request to get them back in Brussels was in
vain. Will I ever see them again? They were worth more than ten thousand
francs, with many relics and other precious objects.
[21] VI. Fayet
Meanwhile, what was happening at Fayet? Father Mathias had his fair
share of hardships. His house was constantly being overrun. His provisions
were carted away, they took his paneling, his floor boards, and his fences for
firewood.
He was able to keep the chapel. One day, however, it was going to be
used as a storeroom for grain. The mayor had told the occupants about this,
but we quickly approached the military authorities through the intervention
of Father Raymond, and the chapel was saved.
The generous Sarrazin sisters were able to help Father Mathias in his
day-to-day living.
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Father Comte was there carrying out his duties as parish priest. Given
the circumstances, [22] he had great success. Almost the entire parish
returned to their religious practices. The grade school teacher sang at mass,
and the assistant helped out. The mayor himself showed up on the major
feasts.
A neighbor of Saint Clement’s, however, had obstinately insisted on
working in his garden all day Sunday. Now jet him take a look at his well-
tended garden.
Father Mathias lost his brother, the pastor at Urvillers60; he went to the
funeral, although it was difficult to gain permission.
Brother Roy was also at Saint Clement’s with Doucy, a postulant.
Father Comte was teaching them philosophy. Raynaut said that young
Bruyelle was studying Latin. Louis Giradin was doing the shopping and [23]
making carbon lamps...
I went to Fayet every two weeks.
I was given a pass. I went on foot, there
was not even the shadow of an
automobile in Saint Quentin. Mr.
Hugues was able to keep an old horse
and a donkey.
In the final months I no longer
had a pass.
Brother Roy was translating the
German communiqués that the mayor
received from the Commandant. But
one day he had a quarrel with the
mayor’s nephew, Mr. Hazard, who
was very anticlerical.
Our students at Fayet had passes
to come to Saint Quentin for classes.
They freely lent out these famous
passports; the soldiers on guard duty saw nothing wrong with that and so our
contacts [24] remained quite frequent.
In the end all of Fayet was evacuated. These poor people could take
nothing with them but one small suitcase; they were led off to take the train
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to Vermand and Beaurevoir61. We saw Father Mathias and the Sisters
passing by on their way to the station at Rocourt62. It was only several months
later that I learned that they had been evacuated to Noyon63 because the
Germans had recently withdrawn from Noyon; dear Father Mathias,
surprised at finding himself in liberated territory, went to the Carmel at
Lisieux64 to seek spiritual comfort.
[25] VII. Our guests at Sacred Heart
During the first months we gave lodging to five
German Franciscans, who were chaplains and nurse’s
aides. They came back only at night, they ate at the field
hospital in the Courthouse.
One of them came down with typhoid fever, this was very unsettling
for the house. A woman from the Red Cross65, Sister Alexandra, came to
care for him. These women are called Sisters, Schweister in German, but
there was nothing monastic about them. Many of the officers had enrolled
their girlfriends in the Red Cross in order to bring them along with them;
their behavior was hardly edifying. Sister Alexandra was proper and even
devout. The daughter of a Hungarian man and an Italian mother, she told me
that she had been the governess [26], of the duke of Parma's children, she
probably meant the chambermaid.
Many parish priests evacuated from the Somme and
Pas-de-Calais66 came to our house. The pastor of Curchy67
stayed the entire time. He was a prisoner on parole and had
to present himself to the Commandant’s office in the
morning and evening. A skillful orator, he often brought the
faithful at Saint John’s parish68 to tears; there were many
conversions.
Father Sueur, pastor of Montauban69 (Somme), came here in a very
depressed state of mind; he had lived in his courtyard for a month without a
bed. He didn’t stay with us, he went to his family and settled in town. Highly
edifying, he was very helpful to the pastor at Saint Martin’s Saint-Martin70.
An elderly pastor from Pas-de-Calais, [27] more than 80 years old,
came and stayed with the Sisters at the general hospital. He had brought
along a large stack of sermons, but the courageous man no longer had any
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opportunity to preach; he died after a few weeks. His old housekeeper made
her services available to the Sisters: “I’m not the pastor’s cook,” she said,
“I’m his housekeeper.” The good priest had also brought along his parrot so
that it would not fall into the enemies’ hands. She would died from grief
shortly after him.
I took in Louis Hiver for several months, then young Sarmer, the
cousin of Brother Bontemps. They were soldiers in disguise and without
papers. I was running a great risk, but we must be charitable. Louis Hiver
managed to return to [28] La Capelle, by outsmarting the guards.
We had a small house boy with us who was very nervous. When the
bell rang, he went to the door with a butcher knife under his apron. It might
have been trouble for us, he said; I thanked him. Madame Lefort, our former
cook, who was afraid of living in her house near the train station, came to
live with us; she helped Madame Charpentier.
I gave lodging to only a few military personnel, sometimes an officer
or a few soldiers. They weren’t comfortable staying with us, our house
seemed like a trap to them.
[29] VIII. An incident: The Brig
Our young priests went out often, perhaps a little bit too much, they
were going out in search of the latest news. One day two of them had an
adventure: Father Devrainne and Brother Bontemps left at about ten o’clock
and had not returned by noon. We were seated at table without them when a
friend of ours came and told us that they had been arrested in the marketplace
and had been taken to the military base.
What had happened? A German platoon was passing by. The officer
in charge, in a hoarse voice, ordered his men to march in a parade step as
they were approaching City Hall. Our two priests broke out in a fit of
uncontrollable giggles. The officer detached two men to arrest them and
bring them to the base.
[30] We consulted with Father Black, and he went on my behalf to ask
for the kind intervention of Father Raymond.
He went to see the commandant where he was told that the priests were
to be judged that same evening. He pleaded for them, telling the officers:
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“They’re French, they laugh quite easily, and then perhaps they were
laughing at something other than the passing platoon.”
I was worried. Our two young men were locked up separately at City
Hall. They were not laughing now. At tour o’clock they were brought just to
the mess hall, then they were led in for the interrogation. “Why did you
laugh? You wanted to poke fun at the Imperial German Army?” The case
was serious. Fortunately, [31] they gave the same explanation: “We laughed
because of the hoarse voice of the commander.”
There were two judges present: one wanted to condemn them, the
other, well-trained by Father Raymond, wanted to acquit them. He won out
and after making them sign a declaration that they had had no intention of
making fun of the Imperial German Army, they dismissed the young men. I
was the one who gained the most from these proceedings because I was the
one who would have had to pay the fine if they had been found guilty.
This famous step appears elegant beyond the Rhine, to us it’s
something strange which makes us laugh. Our little kids in Saint Quentin call
it [32] “the goose step.”71 There was even a song about the goose step. One
of our schoolboys who had the “Goose Step” lyrics in his pocket was
surprised when he was stopped and frisked on the road from Fayet.
Fortunately, the patrol took it well and laughed about it, telling him: “We
know all about that.”
We also almost had a spy case. Good Father Oswald,
a Franciscan, sent our letters to Italy and received them for
me. One fine day the Commandant called for him and
threatened to have him locked up as a spy. I would have
been sent away as well. But there was nothing political in
the letters, so the matter was dropped and Father Oswald
breathed a sigh of relief.
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[NOTEBOOK 3]
[33] IX. The first winter
In December good Father Joseph [Paris] came to us on foot from
Quévy. Along the way he had stayed with a friend, the priest who was dean
of Wassigny72. He had come to see his elderly father who would die a few
months later. He told us that during the siege of Maubeuge the bombs had
slightly damaged the house in Quevy. Father Gilson had left for France,
Father Joseph and Father Charles [Kanters] went off to Bavay73, but they
returned home the next day.
The Germans celebrated Christmas in our churches which they
decorated with pine trees, as is their custom.
I said midnight mass in our chapel, but only for those who were living
in the house.
Christmas, the feast of Saint John, New Year’s day, [34] during the
war all these feast days were grim. We prayed. We wanted. We resigned
ourselves to it.
Coal was scarce, it was impossible to keep the stove going: we heated
the chapel, the dining room, and some of the bedrooms. The younger
members slept in cold rooms.
Some newspapers from Paris reached us, I do not know by what route.
We passed them around, there was some small comfort in that. When we
read some article by Albert de Mun or Maurice Barrès74, that was a treat.
They were selling The Ardennes Gazette75, on our streets, many
people were buying it for lack of anything better. It was disheartening:
naturally the editors were paid to support some partisan viewpoints. They
were usually at the expense [35] of the British. The people read and remain
defiant. The kids who hawked the newspaper would cry out: “Who wants
The Ardennes Gazette, the lying newspaper, a hundred lies for a penny.”
At Sacred Heart we preferred to buy The Gazette of Cologne or the
one from Frankfurt. The newspapers from Cologne were also biased, they
had a special edition for us. The popular Cologne Gazette, a Catholic
newspaper, was hardly inspiring. It displayed an excessive chauvinism and
treated its enemies with a contempt that was hardly Christian.
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The war afforded me a great deal of free time: no
newspapers, no travels, no correspondence. I had the time to
read everything that I have [36] accumulated in my library:
ascetical books, lives of the saints, and treatises of
spirituality, even the quarto edition of the Revelations of
Saint Bridget Brígida76 in latin.
The biographies of saintly souls of our time, like Gertrude Marie,
Elizabeth of the Holy Trinity, Catherine Labouré77, and others, were of
particular interest to me. These privileged souls foresaw the great trials of
our times, but they all said that after the hour of Justice, the time of mercy
will come, and that, after a painful period of reparation, the Eldest Daughter
of the Church will again see beautiful days.
[37] X. April 15th
This was a memorable day for Saint Quentin.
French planes had already frequently flown over the
city and had thrown bombs on the train station78, but on the
15th of April1915 they pulled off their greatest triumph. The
station housed some sizable ammunition depots; the bombs
scored a direct hit on them, this caused a tremendous
explosion, the ground shook as far as the center of the town.
Near the station several houses collapsed, others were
cracked. The whole area was shaken as if by a tornado or a
monsoon. Thousands of windows were broken into pieces.
The windows were blown out of many houses from the
station to the main square.
We felt the blast at Sacred Heart, but only two [38] windows were
broken.
At the basilica79 the damage was enormous. Some
large windows with their stone wainscoting had fallen
out. However the beautiful old stain glass windows were
intact, their location on the east side did not expose them
to the blast of air coming from the south.
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The basilica was no longer fit to be used, so it was closed. The
common council immediately voted the funding for a hasty repair. They put
boards over the windows and a few weeks later we could resume
worshipping there.
In the meantime we made use of Holy Cross Parish, and the chapels
of the Charity Sisters80 and the Augustinians were opened to the public.
Saint Eloi’s Church81 was also without windows, we got around that
by using clothe mattresses.
[39] At the station the entire consignment of munitions was charred
and burned. The explosions followed one after the other as the fire spread to
the depots. A hugh cloud of reddish smoke rose into the sky, forming a bow
as it was bent in the wind. It was reminiscent of Vesuvius in its moments of
anger.
The damage could have been much worse: there were depots of
dynamite which remained unscathed.
At the time of the explosion a military convoy was driving the body
of an officer to the station. Many officers were following behind, they were
thrown into cellars, only the hearse remained on the street. The officers knew
that there were depots of dynamite and if these arsenals had been struck, [40]
the whole city would have been flattened.
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The German press announced that the French bombs had been thrown
at the cathedral -- nothing could be further from the truth. Our planes had
aimed at and struck the munitions depots in the station. It was only because
of the aftershock and the vibrations that the church had been shaken. A few
days later some newly arrived officers visited the cathedral and asked the
workers where the French shells had fallen. They told them how the church
had been damaged without being struck by the bombs. They said: “Then our
German newspapers have not told us the truth.” That happened more than
once.
[41] XI. Saint John’s School
During this time what was happening at our dear house al Saint
John’s? The upper part, on Rue des Arbalétriers82, was carrying out its
mission, it had students right up to the eve of the evacuation. The lower part,
on Rue Antoine Lécuyer, became a field hospital for the poor soldiers who
suffered a nervous breakdown due to the violence of the canon tire, in other
words it was a rnadhouse. The Germans had arranged things to their liking.
They built a shed for the kitchen and the mess hall, and on the first floor they
removed the partitions in the classrooms to make a dormitory.
For a long time the chapel was reserved for worship, but the
Protestants held their services there alternately [42] with the Catholics. In the
end the poor chapel became a barracks. Michael House was kept for officers
who were ill.
Father Rouchaussé83 has made good use of his reduced space. He was
teaching class everywhere: the lounge, the library, the professors’ bedrooms.
There were up to a hundred students. Two professors were priests: Fathers
Gratiot and Virlaye, and several laymen, Messieurs Vilfort, Harmant, Tétier,
Vinchon. The German professor, Mr. Kielwasser, provided welcome help
acting as the interpreter to settle issues with neighboring field hospital.
The household staff remained the same: Sister Saint Marcelle with her
assistants, the caretaker, and the ever-faithful Gaston.
The atmosphere in the house was devout. [43] Father Rouchaussé had
brought together a dozen students from Saint Charles. They added several
minor seminarians.
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Everything was coming along nicely: the classes, even the
preparations for the examinations; during the occupation we had the diploma
and the baccalaureate exams in Saint Quentin. Professors from Lille84 were
given safe passage to come to preside over the exams.
The German chaplain claimed to be the inspector of the schools and
he came to see what we were doing.
Catechism lessons were carefully prepared.
Father Rouchaussé preached the student retreat at the beginning of the
school year and two retreats in preparation for First Communion in the
chapel at Sacred Heart.
[44] But there were many anxious hours. Several times there was talk
of expanding the hospital facilities to the whole section that had been left to
us.
Several of the professors, who were more nervous than the others,
were often unsettled. They went to the cellar when they heard the roar of the
planes or the rumbling of the bombs.
Father Rouchaussé had set up an oratory in my old office on the first
floor. I prayed there with great emotion.
[45] XII. Life in Saint Quentin
Life was hard. Each day with its various anxieties and hopes was
wearing us out. The Ardennes Gazette and the German press were trying to
crush our spirit. Sometimes -- I don’t know from where - we received a
snippet from a French newspaper or the planes dropped the comforting
words of Lavisse85 in leaflets that were intended for the occupied territories.
We had to entrust ourselves to God, prayer, and spiritual reading in
order to maintain our peace of soul.
Many false reports and phony stones were circulated to increase our
apprehension.
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Fresh supplies were limited: 250 or 300 grams of bread,
and what bread it was! Usually it was black bread, poorly
baked, and indigestible. [46] It was made from bran, corn
meal, and flaxseed oil. As for the quantity, the baker often did
us the favor86 of giving us the surplus bread that was left over.
Meat was scarce. Every now and then the Germans gave
the butchers a few animals to kill. The students received very meager
portions.
The Germans requisitioned fruits, potatoes, and eggs; the markets
rarely had green vegetables and bunches of herbs for the rabbits.
I had planted potatoes in our lawns and in my plot of land on Rue de
Mulhouse87.
The American supplies [47] were an immense help for us. Rice, fat,
lard and sometimes even fish were sold at a reasonable price. The elderly
had boxes of milk, but everything was rationed according to the number of
people living in each house.
We had war script for money, small papers in every denomination
from five centimes to a thousand francs. People would collect them like the
old bank notes used during the French Revolution. The German mark was
the official currency.
There was not much left to buy. The German chaplains gave us wine
for mass and they sold us wax at eight francs per kilo.
We heard the canon fire day and night. La Somme was not far away
and for two years the fighting went on there every day.
[48] Our supply of coal was very limited.
Some merchants were engaging in speculation at the expense of their
fellow citizens. They were buying sugar at 100 francs a sack and reselling it
for 500 francs.
This city was not conspicuous for its morality. Many of the women,
even those from well-to-do families, were too free and easy with the
occupiers. People would remember this depravity after the war.
Cf. NQT
37/1
(03.1915);
cf. 38/97.
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31
[NOTEBOOK 4]
[49] XIII. The Parishes - the Ministry
In Saint Quentin there was a great outpouring of faith during the first
two years of the war. After that it seems that there was a little more
discouragement and apathy.
The Archpriest88 demonstrated a zeal that was truly persevering. At
every evening prayer he spoke a few words to his parishioners and the people
came there in great numbers. But for months the poor basilica was
uninhabitable.
At Saint John’s Parish Father Crinon found the inspiration to sustain
the faithful. He had devotions at the shrine of Our Lady of the Armies. Each
month he celebrated a mass for the soldiers who had died. The pastor at
Curchy preached with great zeal.
[50] Father Rouchaussé applied all his efforts at the basilica, he
preached the lenten mission there.
We helped everywhere as much as we could. Father Urbain went to
Saint John’s Parish every day, he said the late masses there. On weekdays
Father Devrainne went to Saint Eloi and on Sundays to Homblières89. Father
Burg was the chaplain for the Charity Sisters, and Father Black was the
chaplain at Holy Cross.
I was able to give a retreat once to the Little
Sisters of the Poor90, and twice to our Sisters91, despite
my bronchitis. I did not dare risk it at Holy Cross
when they had asked me.
Our little chapel of the Sacred Heart became semipublic out of
necessity. Since the basilica was closed for such a long time, and [51] then
it became uncomfortable because of the constant drafts, everyone had to look
for the nearest chapel. Ours was quite full on Sundays. During the week we
had some who attended regularly, like Mr. Vilfort and Mr. Harmant of Saint
John’s School, and Sister Saint Marcelle.
Every month I went to the Convent to give a conference. I saw the
Chère Mère Supérieure, who was calmly preparing for death. Her memory
was becoming weak, but her spirit remained what it had always been, a
Cf. NQT 38/132
(09.1915) and NQT
39/68 (5-8.12.1915)
2015
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woman of great faith and great character. She prayed, she gave advice, she
practiced self-sacrifice by giving something away to everyone who came to
visit. She would die at Soignies92 when she arrived in Belgium, on the eve of
her 80th birthday.
[52] I went to see Madame Malézieux often and I brought her Holy
Communion once or twice a month. She was disappointed that she was
unable to go to mass because there weren’t any more automobiles in Saint
Quentin.
I was often called to the bedside of the sick, my old acquaintances. I
prepared several of them for death: my former student Paul Poette, the
brother of priests; Mr. Evrard, the former carpenter, a great patron of the
poor, who was always faithful and devout; Mr. Cogne, a manufacturar, a
former seminarian, who had made a fortuna but kept his faith.
[53] XIV. Relationships
In times of trial we turn to our friends and our old
acquaintances. I received quite a few visitors in Saint
Quentin: Mr. Desjardins, a former member of parliament,
and his son;93 Mr. Hugues Frédéric, Mr. Jourdain, Mr. Fleury,
Mr. Soret, the city tax assessor, the Maréchals, Marchandier,
and so many others.94 Many good families had departed in the
nick of time.
During difficult times we need to mutually encourage one another, to
pour out our troubles, and share our hopes.
The German station master, a Catholic and a notary in Lorraine, came
to greet me. His brother, a priest in [South] America, had known Bishop
Grison95 and our Fathers in Ecuador. He had come to Saint Quentin with our
bishop from over there.
[54] Several of our German Fathers and Brothers came
to see me: the priests were chaplains, the brothers were
soldiers. All of them conducted themselves as they should
have. Several came from Belgium and brought me some
money from Father Falleur96.
Cf. NQT
35/121
(11.1914)
Cf. NQT
38/97
(28.08.1915)
2015
24
33
34
Several times I saw Father Loh97 who was an ambulance driver at the
railroad station in Cherbourg98, Father Storms99, a missionary, Father
Demont100, who even ministered to the French at the front in Chauny101. He
tried to gain permission for me to go to Brussels. One evening he went to the
Commandant who, as usual, was having a lavish dinner with his officers.
Father came back and told me: “There’s nothing that can be done, they’re
drunk.”
[55] On several occasions I was called to the Commandant’s office to
receive letters from my young priests in Alsace-Lorraine102 who were
requesting testimonial letters. I was able to arrange for several of them at
Trèves103 and even at Breslau104.
Once, in August 1915, I was handed a telegram, it was
bad news: the death of dear Father Jean Guillaume105, a pious
victim of the Sacred Heart, who had offered up his terrible
sufferings for all of our great causes. He was laid to rest in the
dreary cemetery at Hérent106.
The Fathers from Charleroy107 gave me news
from Holland and Belgium.
The chaplain from La Capelle108 brought me letters from my [56]
brother109. He was extremely polite and well educated; he lived with my
family and scandalized them with his modernist ideas.
During the first months of the war I was receiving news about all my
men in Bologna through the intervention of the chaplain Father Oswald, but
that came to an end and he had to give it up in order not to be suspected of
espionage.
[57] XV. Royal visits. Requisitions.
The Kaiser visited Saint Quentin three times110. He stayed in a large
elegant house on the Champs Élysées, Boulevard Gambetta111, which
belonged to the Basquin-Bartaut family. He complimented Madame Basquin
on her good taste in furniture and gave her an exemption from housing the
military for the duration of the occupation.
As his duty officers were preparing the house, they were asked if it
was necessary to take down an image of the Blessed Virgin which might be
Cf. NQT 38/27
(21.06.1915)
Cf. NQT 38/75
(01.08.1915)
2015
25
35
offensive to the Kaiser’s Lutheran faith. They replied that the Kaiser paid no
attention to that sort of thing because he was a deist, and that was that. Was
he not revealing a tendency to confuse the Christian God with the old
German god, Odin or Wodin?
[58] There was a review of the troops on the main square112, military
music, and a visit to the large field hospitals at City Hall and the high school.
In 1916 the Kaiser wanted to unveil a monument set up in the new
cemetery where those who died in the hospitals -- both Germans and
French113 -- had been laid to rest. He invited the mayor, the Protestant
pastors, and the Archpriest, who delivered a short, well-turned speech,
respectful but without flattery, in praise of the soldiers who gave their life
for their country.
The Kaiser chatted informally with him. He told him that the Pope was
his friend, that he truly loved France, and that he would help her take back
Calais which the English wanted to occupy. He thought that our potato crops
were not equal to those grown in the sandy soil of Prussia.
[59] One of the Kaiser’s sons, Prince Auguste114, also spent a long
time in Saint Quentin. In no way did he appear to be a soldier; he had been
injured, but in an automobile accident. He behaved in such a shameful
manner that his father punished him by sending him to Vervins115. Many
officers were also hedonistic and shirked their duties. One day the Kaiser
told them: “You are not at all like the officers in Bismarck’s time.”
A young Saxon prince, the Kaiser’s second son116, also stayed with us.
This man was well-behaved and devout. He attended mass every day at Holy
Cross Chapel where Father Black gave him Holy Communion. He visited
Madame Malézieux in remembrance of the hospitality that she had shown to
a Saxon prince [60] in 1870.
Prince Sahn, one of the leaders of the Catholic party, was in charge of
our field hospitals.
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The requisitions! First, it was all the wine. They told us it was for the
field hospitals, but the wounded never saw any of it. For a long time it was
served at the officers’ parties and they took truckloads of it back to Germany.
They even mixed stacks of fine, expensive wines with the more
ordinary everyday wines.
At Sacred Heart they didn’t find any, Father Urbain made sure of that.
On two occasions they came and searched the garden in vain, digging up all
the flower beds with their bayonets.
[61] XVI. Final difficulties - The Accident - The Departure
The final days were quite difficult. We could no longer leave the city.
For more than six months I couldn’t go to Fayet. Father Devrainne could no
longer go to Homblières.
We had to endure several house searches for copper. The intruders
took whatever they found: the community’s bell, the chandeliers, some
heaters, some pots; they gave me a requisition voucher.
There was a special squad called the investigators.
Among them was a Jew who started to take the thurible and
he was going to dismantle the chapel, but the Corporal
reminded him that they were forbidden to confiscate sacred
objects.
[62] The city was in turmoil, there was talk of an impending
evacuation, but the Commandant denied it. Finally on March 2nd the
evacuation117 notice was posted. The entire city was going to leave in two
weeks. Everyone dejectedly began to pack his suitcases. Everything had to
be left behind: libraries, precious objects, family heirlooms!
No one was crying, but everyone was hurting. The German chaplains
wanted to take charge of our crates with the sacred objects, will we ever see
them again?
We received notice that our departure would be according to
neighborhoods. Two trains per day were going to Belgium without knowing
where: long delays at the station, cattle cars or freight cars.
Cf. NQT
40/84
(10.1916)
2015
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38
[63] Everyone carried his own suitcase to the station, as best he could.
A German soldier took ours in a car, for a tip.
The 11th of March a fire broke out in Mr. Arrachart’s house. I went to
console the family. Hardships were piling up one after another.
Departure on the 13th. Five o’clock at the station, for a 9 o’clock
departure. I had said mass at 4 o’clock.
They put us in a wagon. We sat on the baggage. Thanks to the supplies
provided by the Americans118 we had some biscuits and chocolate for the
trip. I left my two houses completely furnished, the chapel at Sacred Heart’s
was fully decorated.
The journey was painful: long stops. Uncertainty [64]
about the destination of the trip. Some people mentioned
Givet119. In the evening we arrived in Enghien120. Exhausted,
with our packages in our arms, we could only leave the
station one at a time. The city of Enghien wanted to count
us: the absurdities of government bureaucracy. We fell down
from exhaustion. The Jesuits welcomed us like brothers.
I was worn out with exhaustion and the impact of everything. I will
never completely recover from it.
Fiat voluntas Dei!
Cf. NQT
40/115
(12.03.1917)