Vescovo di Clogher la S. Sede aveva concessa una indulgenza alla visita del Purgatorio di S. Patrizio.

"Quindi S. Oratore supplica la sanctita vostra degnarsi di accordare l'indulgenza plenaria, applicabile alle anime del purgatorio, a tutti i fideli, che premetti i sancti sacramenti della Confessione e Communione visita un detto santuario, e cio toties quolies ripeteranno dette prattiche della SS. Communione durante gli esercizi che ecc."

The following may be regarded as a pretty accurate translation of the foregoing document :—

"MOST HOLY FATHER,

"James Donnelly, Bishop of Clogher, in Ireland, respectfully submits to your Holiness what follows.

"In his diocese he has a sanctuary called St. Patrick's Purgatory, which is frequented by the devout not only of Ireland, but from England and Scotland also. Each pilgrim spends at least three days at the said sanctuary in pious exercises, and frequentation of the sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist, under the direction of the secular priests, who have charge of the place. Of it, likewise, Benedict XIII. speaks in the 13th Sermon on Purgatory. Historians say that such a pilgrimage was established by the said St. Patrick. And although at the time of the persecution by the Protestants, every effort was made to destroy the said sanctuary, yet they could not destroy it; and it still subsists with immense advantage to the spiritual welfare of the surrounding people, and to the Catholic religion.

"According to the Relatio Status, made in 1814 by Dr. Murphy, B hop of Clogher, the Holy See had attached an indulgence to the visit of the Purgatory of St. Patrick.

"Hence Petitioner begs that your Holiness will be pleased to grant a plenary indulgence, applicable to the souls in Purgatory, to all the faithful who shall have previously received the Holy Sacraments of Confession and Communion, and visited the said sanctuary,

and who repeat toties quoties the aforesaid practice of Holy Communion during the exercises," &c., &c.

The following is a copy of the Papal Indult, granting the prayer of the above petition by according a plenary indulgence to this pilgrimage :

"Ex audientia SSimi, die 26 Junii, 1870.

"SSimus D. N. Pius Divina Providentia PP. IX. referente me infra-scripto S. C. de Propaganda Fide Secretario, benigne prorogavit Indulgentiam Plenariam lucrandam ab omnibus Christi fidelibus, qui confessi ac sacra Eucharistia refecti prædictam capellam vulgo Purgatorium S. Patritii visitaverint, ibique per aliquod temporis spatium pias ad Deum fuderint preces pro S. Fidei propagatione, et juxta summi Pontificis intentionem.

"Dat. Romæ ex æd. dic. S. C. die et anno ut supra. "Gratis sine ulla solutione quocumque titulo.

"JOANNES SIMEONI, Secretarius."

This Indult may be translated as follows:

"From an audience of IIis IIoliness, on the 26th day of June, 1870. "Our Most Holy Father Pius IX., by Divine Providence Pope, at the representation of me, the undersigned Secretary of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, has graciously prolonged the concession of a plenary indulgence to be gained by all the faithful, who, having confessed and being nourished by the Holy Eucharist, shall have visited the above-mentioned sanctuary, commonly called the Purgatory of St. Patrick, and there, during some space of time, shall have offered up pious prayers to God for the propagation of our holy faith, and according to the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff.

"Given at Rome, from the Office of said Sacred Congregation, on the date and year above named.

"Gratis, without any payment under whatever title.

"JOHN SIMEONI, Secretary."

From the foregoing Indult it will be seen that the indulgences accorded to this pilgrimage are given for an indefinite period, and consequently they may be understood to continue annexed to the pilgrimage until withdrawn by the Holy See.

To the pious pilgrim to Lough Derg, it cannot but be a source of the most heartfelt satisfaction to read the above Indult, which shall ever be regarded as the title-deed of the sanctity of this penitential retreat, and as the endowment of it with spiritual graces by a Pontiff, whose career was so glorious, and who loved the Irish race so much because of their constant faith and fervent piety.

PILGRIMAGE OF LOUGH DERG.

193

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE HEALTHFUL CLIMATE OF LOUGH DERG-PECULIAR EFFICACY OF THE EXERCISES OF THIS STATION-THE JOY AND PEACE EXPERIENCED IN THIS PILGRIMAGE-BENEFACTORS OF THIS TRULY CATHOLIC CHARITY-CONCLUDING REMARKS.

ISITORS to Lough Derg speak in the highest praise of the salubrious quality of its climate. Nor is this to be wondered at; for, situated as it is within about four miles, in a direct line, from Donegal Bay, it enjoys the advantage of the sea air, tempered by the mountain breezes; so that

during the dry, warm days of summer the atmosphere of Lough Derg is the most healthful, bracing, and invigorating perhaps of any other locality in Ireland. And to this circumstance may be, to a great extent, ascribed the almost total immunity from mortality which the island has enjoyed; for the oldest inhabitants of the place can only remember one or two deaths to have occurred here out of such crowds of pilgrims, many of whom were old and feeble persons, who travelled very long journeys to the island, and there performed the different exercises in all their rigour. It is now nearly forty years since the last death occurred on the island; and

that was in the case of an aged woman, who was interred in the cemetery of the pilgrimage on Saints' Island, and whose funeral was accompanied to her last resting-place by the pilgrims then "on station." So genial is the atmosphere of the locality, that few are heard to complain of the slightest indisposition while they remain here; and if this be owing in some part to the healthful climate of the place, it cannot be denied that the practice of penance and mortification here observed has a great deal to do with this happy state of things; the practice of mortification not only being of salutary advantage to the soul, but contributing, likewise, towards the health of the body.

It is a remarkable fact, upon which many comment, that the devotional exercises of this pilgrimage have a wonderful efficacy in securing the necessary dispositions for worthily receiving the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion. Hence it is that many persons, after having attended missions and retreats elsewhere (such persons regarding missions as only a preparatory course for properly entering on this pilgrimage), come here in order to secure that interior happiness which its exercises are so calculated to produce. Nor are there wanting many and convincing reasons to show the peculiar efficacy of these exercises. In the first place, that crucial test of the sanctity of a place, the nonne cor nostrum ardens erat in nobis, here forces itself on the mind. One feels in this place, as it were instinctively, that he walks upon holy ground; that here the prayer blessed by penance is certain of being heard; that here the soul is allowed close converse with God; that here Heaven