"On a sudden, after pressing both hands in this way with much violence, and working them about to and fro, she drew them away and her forehead was found covered with blood. At this the whole room started with awe to see what we were told was the miraculous crowning with thorns performed visibly before our eyes. Sobs and sighs were heard on all sides. After a little while the forehead was inspected more closely, repeatedly, and by various persons. Mr. Foley was asked whether there was a complete crown round the head. He answered that there was over the head, and that this was the source of the miraculous effusion. On investigation it turned out that on the forehead itself there were no punctures; that there were no signs nor marks in or under the hair; that there was a clear space of separation between the blood and the commencement of the hair, and that the blood did not flow, nor had it the appearance of having ever flowed from any part of the forehead. It had all the appearance, indeed, of having been laid on ab extra, and there appeared also to be marks of two fingers on the left side of the forehead. On seeing these things, Mr. Russell drew me aside, and pointing them out, expressed his opinion that the whole affair was an imposture, and that the blood was laid on by the fingers. To test this, he proposed examining the left hand, and, on examination, it was found that on the fore-finger of that hand there were one or two wounds, and on the next finger the same. Whether these wounds were recent I cannot say; but, on Mr. Foley's attention being called to them, he first told Mr. Russell that "the blood trickled from the stigmas" (which were in the palm and on the back of the hand) "through the tips of the fingers," and he then said aloud, that "they were made by her needle," Wounds, however, there were, and exactly in the places in which the appearances of the forehead led Mr. Russell to expect them. "To test the matter further, Mr. Russell proposed to wash the blood from the forehead in order to search for punctures or supernatural wounds. To this Mr. Foley consented, and warm-water was sent for; but the answer was brought back that there was none in the house, though breakfast was only just over. After a little while it was again sent for by Mr. Russell, but the servant of whom it was required, pertly and saucily desired him to ask it of Mr. Foley, and waved her hand to the other side of the room. Meanwhile, Mr. Russell took out his pocket handkerchief, wetted it, and began to wipe the forehead; but any attempt to touch the blood seemed to give the most exquisite pain; and Mary, on one occasion, turned to Mr. Foley (during her internal absorption in the painful mystery of the crucifixion,) and desired him, "not to let them be giving her pain. Once, when he was attempting to wipe the forehead, a lady offered him a handkerchief; he refused it, thinking it to be hers, but she denied that it was so, and, on looking at it, it was seen to have large spots of blood on it. Mr. Foley inquired what this meant, and was told by the attendant that it and another like it both belonged to Mary. Now, as no blood had been visible during the day except that on the forehead, and as that had not been wiped off, it seemed from the bloody handkerchief, that there had been other meddling with blood than that which was exhibited before the spectators. During these doings, it occurred to me, that *These changes are the more remarkable, because the face is never washed, she not being able to bear the use of water, either hot or cold." Lord Shrewsbury's Letter to A. Phillips, Esq., page 34. Mary's eyes, though they were pretended to be shut, and she herself insensible to all that was going on, were yet in fact open, and were narrowly watching the whole affair. I watched her eyes very closely, and I feel no doubt whatever that my eyes met hers's, and that my looks were recognised. I noticed particularly, three times at least in succession that when my eye caught her's, her lips at once began to move as if in prayer. Mr. Russell, too, thought she appeared under apprehension and about to faint; and whether from this cause or from some other, the attendant opened the windows at each end of the room to let in more air, though no one had complained of the heat or desired her to do so. At length the time approached when the stigmas on the hands and feet were to bleed. Mr. Foley, in accordance with Mr. Russell's solicitation, ordered her to lay out her hands on the bed and not to cover them with any thing. At the same time the clothes were turned back at the foot of the bed so as to leave the feet bare. When this was done, some of the bystanders remarked that the feet would soon bleed, because all round the wounds were much inflamed and red. This was true; but, after about ten minutes exposure to the light, the redness vanished and the skin resumed its natural colour. Mary still lay moaning, and the spectators still stood watching for the miraculous bleeding. "We had been told that she was insensible in every part of her body but the stigmas; that pins might be run into her in every part but those ; but whenever those parts were touched, she started, groaned, and seemed to be in great agony. This, however, was not quite uniform. On one occasion, and I think more than one, I remarked that the agony did not come immediately. She seemed to have forgotten for a moment that she ought to be in agony, and the groaning began several seconds after the wound was touched. Now, however, when the bleeding of the stigmas was waited for, she doubled both her fists strongly together so as to bring the points of the fingers violently in contact with the inside stigmas, and evidently suffered no pain from the operation. After several writhings and convulsive movements in the bed, which ended in nothing, she whispered Mr. Foley. What she said we did not then learn. Mr. Foley said it was something "curious," which he could not repeat; but he gave us to understand that the wounds would not bleed, and that there was no use in our staying longer, for that there would be no change till three o'clock (it was now between twelve and one.) Accordingly Mr. Russell, Mr. Scully, and myself soon after left the room; and, on comparing notes on our walk back to the inn, we unanimously agreed that the whole affair was a diabolical fraud, and that one, at least, of the servants was in the conspiracy. We agreed also that Mary Roche knew we had suspected her, though nothing had passed between us beyond what has been here stated. We resolved to go at once to the Rev. Mr. - and inform him of what we had witnessed. He told us that our narrative confirmed some previous doubts of his own; he mentioned another instance in which an inspection of the miracle of the marks of the cord had been prevented by special revelation; and he told us that, before these miracles had occurred the Tyrolese Virgins had formed the subject of certain discourses in the Asylum by Mr. Foley. Mr. also said that on one occasion a handkerchief, with blood on it, had been shown him, and he was told that it was from Mary's forehead, and could not be washed out. He ordered some water to be brought, however, and every stain of blood was soon made to disappear. When we got back to the inn we met Brother who had staid behind us. He said that after we had gone, Mr. Foley acquainted the crowd that the wounds would not bleed to-day, because persons who had no faith in the miracles had been present (this, it seems, was the "curious" saying before referred to); the room was then all but cleared, and soon it was announced that the wounds had begun to bleed. The crowd all rushed back, together with some Protestant additions, no one knows who, and again the miracle of the bleeding stopped short for want of faith. I ought to add, however, that between our two vists, before and after Mass, that is, after the cording had been performed, this girl's frock, or gown, was changed for one of a different make about the arms. Mary Roche is stated to be a relation of Mr. Foley's. "The Magdalen we saw much less of. On one occasion, however, Mr. Russell was amused by her throwing herself into a most graceful and studied attitude of devotion, on his coming suddenly into the room and expressing his admiration of the beauty of her devotional demeanour, &c. This girl was first admitted into the house about four years ago. Three months after her admission she ran away, joined a sister of hers in Cork, and lived in prostitution again for about nine months. About three years ago she returned, and has remained ever since. She declares that when the house was being built, or fitted up, she used to look at it with much interest, and had an impression on her mind that she should one day live there. "The third miraculous virgin we did not see. As to the commencement of these manifestations, we were told by Mr. Foley that for some time several months ago, one of the girls (Mary Roche, I believe) had great pains. The doctor was called in, and blisters were applied, but without giving any relief. At length Mr. Foley himself inquired of the girl whether she was not concealing from him some spiritual cause of her sufferings. She then told him that she had a great sympathy with our Lord's sufferings, and thought her pains might have some connexion with these. When the stigmas began first of all to make an indistinct appearance, we were told by one of the curates that Mr. Foley ordered the entire establishment to put up a fifty days' prayer for the more distinct manifestation of what was thus going on. At the end of that time the stigmas became more distinct. It appears, then, that the first idea of these miracles may have been suggested by Father Foley's discourses on the Tyrol Virgins, and that the commencements of them were (unconsciously) helped on by his suggestions and positive encouragement. "The revelations of these girls are said to coincide exactly with those of Sister Emmerich, and even to go beyond them in some details. One of these details, as stated by the Rev. Mr. -, is, that on one occasion she marked herself with the sign of the cross, and being asked what that represented, she answered, "Our Lord blessed himself." Now Mr. Foley's mind is quite full of Sister Emmerich's revelations, and, from the unreserved way in which he speaks before the girls, and even states in their hearing, but in the full belief that they cannot hear him, his own crude guesses as to such and such meanings to be given to their motions and proceedings, I have no doubt if they, or one of them, has told him anything resembling what is to be found in Sister Emmerich, that she has heard it first from him, and has repeated his narratives, with some additions of her own, like that of "our Lord blessing himself." - "I may conclude with the remark, that our minds were anything but sceptically disposed on commencing the inquiry. On the contrary, we all looked at it with much reverence, and were strongly disposed to believe it true. Up to the time of blood appearing on the forehead, and even later, I looked at what was being done with the utmost respect, and even devotion. Some things, indeed, appeared strange and inexplicable, but I certainly did not imagine a deliberate fraud. Mr. Russell was the quickest to detect the imposture, and it was only on putting calmly all the above circumstances together, and finding myself strengthened by the clear decision of Mr. Russell, that I ventured to adopt his conclusion. Mr. Scully, indeed, on leaving the house, though staggered by some part of the scene, was inclined to believe in the possibility of the genuineness of the affair; but a very little reflection satisfied him of the fraud, of which we are all now convinced more firmly than ever." It would appear that such fearless exercise of private judgment was not permitted to pass without reproof; and that Mr. Lucas was called to an account for his interference, just as Mr. Scully had been reprimanded by Mr. Sheehan. For on the 25th February, he finds it necessary to plead the emergency of the case; on the ground of Protestant interference, leaving no alternative, between coming manfully forward as he did, or permitting Protestant denunciation and exposure openly to take the lead. He expressly refers to the notice of the transaction in what he calls the Tory Papers, and which he had seen IN DUBLIN; and gives the published papers of the Protestant Ministers" in extenso," as justifying the course he and his Rev. associates had adopted. He thus pleads his apology. FROM THE TABLET OF THE 25th FEBRUARY. ON THE PUBLICITY GIVEN TO THE YOUGHAL MIRACLES. "We promised last week to say a word or two in our present paper on some unfortunate circumstances connected with this business, which we could not then conveniently detail. We imagine, from one or two communications that have since reached us, that we should have done well to give these explanations before entering upon our exposure of the frauds in question. "Several of our correspondents inquire why we did not leave Father Foley and his Miracles to the judgment of his Bishop, and why we presumed to meddle in these high clerical matters at all? We answer firmly, but respectfully, that we did so because the subject had first been made public by others, and not by us. If the matter had been kept private we should never have disturbed it, or raked it up to the end of time. Even before we visited Youghal, the affair had been published in the Cork Orange paper. When we visited Youghal, it was public and notorious to all the neighbourhood for more than twenty miles round; and the D Castle and adjacent grounds were crowded with devout pilgrims coming from afar. But this was not all. Youghal, as all our readers may not be aware, is a town remarkable for its bigotry; and at that very time the "swaddlers" of Youghal were making their excursions into the neighbouring towns (Lismore, &c.) to preach against and blaspheme our faith on the strength of these miracles. At this very time then, as far as regards general notoriety and the impossibility of preserving secrecy, the miracles had been deliberately made public. "But this we did not consider sufficient to warrant us in giving the matter a more general publicity. On the contrary, until it had been brought in a more definite shape before the public of Waterford, and, through that channel, before the readers of the Morning Chronicle and Dublin Evening Mail, we not merely held back, but exerted ourselves very earnestly and very seriously to prevent publication, in an instance to which we shall not more particularly allude. When the inaccurate statement of the Waterford Chronicle appeared, we thought (and most justly as it afterwards proved) that an attempt would be made to bolster up the miracles by an indignant denial of these inaccuracies. To prevent this being done with success, we then, for the first time, mentioned the affair, admitted the incorrectness of the published version of the case, but stated as strongly as we could our own private belief, founded on personal examination, that the miracles were gross and detestable frauds; but we abstained from saying a single word that could be personally offensive to Father Foley, or to any human being, who, in our opinion, was not a partaker in the fraud. Moreover, we were careful to state that we gave this merely as our own individual opinion, and without at all wishing to prejudge the case when the proper authorities should come to examine it. This paragraph was published in the TABLET of the fourth of February. On the first of February—that is, several days before the Editor of this Journal, or either of his reverend companions at Youghal, had said one word publicly on the subject-Father Foley addressed to the Cork Examiner a letter, in which he points out certain parties to public reprobation as scandalous for their unbelief, hands them over very quietly to the bottomless pit, and, in direct and formal terms, appeals from their individual, and at that time wholly unpublished, judgment, to the Pope, to the Bishop, to "the press," "to the public at large," and "to the judgment of an enlightened public," Protestant and Catholic. Father Foley himself thus called for and deliberately invited a public discussion through the press, and brought the matter from the jurisdiction of the Bishop to the profane court of public opinion. There he brought it; and if he had been unanswered, he pledged the credit of the Catholic Church, in his person as a priest, to all the malignant enemies of the Church, that these miracles were undoubtedly true, and that they admitted of being "proved by many witnesses upon oath." This letter of Father Foley's was reprinted in the Dublin Tory papers, in the London papers, and we dare say in most papers of the three kingdoms. We saw it with our own eyes hawked about the streets of Dublin, in a fly-sheet, while a large printed board and the hawker at the top of his voice announced to all the curious, "A full account of Father Foley's miraculous Nun at Youghal, "whose hands and feet bleed every Friday at the same hour-price only 66 one penny." "This ostentatious invitation by Father Foley himself to a public discussion, would alone have justified us in coming forward to rebut publicly |