He Is The Shepherd Of The Good Catholic Flock,
Whose Pasture Is Prepared In The Midst Of Mussulmans And
Schismatics;
He keeps the light of the true faith ever vividly
before their eyes, reproves their vices, supports them in their
Good resolves, consoles them in their afflictions, and teaches them
to hate the Greek Church. Such are his labours, and you may
conceive that great tact must be needed for conducting with success
the spiritual interests of the church under circumstances so odd as
those which surround it in Palestine.
But the position of the Padre Superiore is still more delicate; he
is almost unceasingly in treaty with the powers that be, and the
worldly prosperity of the establishment over which he presides is
in great measure dependent upon the extent of diplomatic skill
which he can employ in its favour. I know not from what class of
churchmen these personages are chosen, for there is a mystery
attending their origin and the circumstance of their being
stationed in these convents, which Rome does not suffer to be
penetrated. I have heard it said that they are men of great note,
and, perhaps, of too high ambition in the Catholic Hierarchy, who
having fallen under the grave censure of the Church, are banished
for fixed periods to these distant monasteries. I believe that the
term during which they are condemned to remain in the Holy Land is
from eight to twelve years. By the natives of the country, as well
as by the rest of the brethren, they are looked upon as superior
beings; and rightly too, for Nature seems to have crowned them in
her own true way.
The chief of the Jerusalem convent was a noble creature; his
worldly and spiritual authority seemed to have surrounded him, as
it were, with a kind of "court," and the manly gracefulness of his
bearing did honour to the throne which he filled. There were no
lords of the bedchamber, and no gold sticks and stones in waiting,
yet everybody who approached him looked as though he were being
"presented"; every interview which he granted wore the air of an
"audience"; the brethren as often as they came near bowed low and
kissed his hand; and if he went out, the Catholics of the place
that hovered about the convent would crowd around him with devout
affection, and almost scramble for the blessing which his touch
could give. He bore his honours all serenely, as though calmly
conscious of his power to "bind and to loose."
CHAPTER XI - GALILEE
Neither old "sacred" {25} himself, nor any of his helpers, knew the
road which I meant to take from Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee and
from thence to Jerusalem, so I was forced to add another to my
party by hiring a guide. The associations of Nazareth, as well as
my kind feeling towards the hospitable monks, whose guest I had
been, inclined me to set at naught the advice which I had received
against employing Christians.
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