in the hearts of the men and women of his time and organized them for action.  St. Dominic did the same for the intellectual wants of the time.  Why not do this for our age?  Who shall so touch the springs of men’s hearts and reach their minds as to lead them to the desire of united action, and organize them so as to bring forth great results?  There is no doubt that the age wants this.  Who is there that is inspired from a higher sphere of life, and sees into the future, so as to be able to speak to men and to invite them to do the work of God in our day?  Who takes all humanity into his heart, and with the past and present at once in his mind can inspire men to live and act for the divine future?”

He also visited the Holy House at Loretto, and, passing through Venice and Milan to see the great churches of these cities, “the despair of all modern church-builders,” as he says, he came finally to Genoa.

“I turned my steps,” he writes, “to the general hospital; and why?  Because the interest of my heart was there, and has been there for upward of twenty years.  It is the spot where St. Catherine of Genoa labored for the miserable, loved God, and sanctified her soul.  Her body is in a crystal case, uncorrupted, withered in appearance but not unpleasant to the sight.  When the curtain was withdrawn and I could see her face and her feet, which were uncovered, I could not help exclaiming with the Psalmist, ‘God is wonderful in His saints!’ I cannot express what an attraction I have always felt for St. Catherine of Genoa.  She knew how to reconcile the greatest fidelity to the interior attrait and guidance of the Holy Spirit with perfect filial obedience to the external and divine authority of the Holy Church.  She knew how to reconcile the highest degree of divine contemplation with the greatest extent of works of external charity.  She was a heroic lover of God, for she resisted His gifts, lest she might forget the Giver in them, and be hindered the entire possession of Him, and the complete union of her soul with Him.  As a virgin she was pure, a model as a wife, and as a widow a saint!  Her writings on the spiritual life are masterpieces, and though a woman, no man has surpassed, if any has equalled, the eloquence of her pen.”

He procured an excellent copy of St. Catherine’s portrait preserved at the hospital, and brought it home with him.  He had done the same for Sts.  Philip and Ignatius before leaving Rome.  St. Catherine’s picture represents a handsome face, earnest, simple, and joyful; she is dressed plainly as a devout woman living in the world, lovely to look upon and inspiring love of God and man in the beholder.

Father Hecker’s stay in Europe during the winter of 1869-70 and the following spring awakened in his soul aspirations towards a wide and enduring religious movement in the Old World, similar to that which he had started in the New.  At the time he did not anticipate any personal share in it other than encouragement and direction from America.  The reader will learn in the sequel that these aspirations were again felt, and that with renewed force, when he returned to Europe in ill health three years later.