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THE NUN OF KENMARE

KENMARE

VERSUS THE

DESPOTISM OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.

IS POPERY IN THE WAY?

"But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."

Matt. 10:33.

To deny Jesus Christ before men is expensive business—more so than many think, or than any one can know. To confess Jesus Christ is to assure recognition before God and the angels in heaven, and help from the good on the earth. The Nun of Kenmare is suffering from the effects of her rejection of Jesus Christ in attempting to promote the worship of Mary. For the doing of this she had no excuse. Born into a Christian home, educated in a Bible-loving family, privileged with knowing and reading the word of God, and then deliberately turning to the idolatries of Rome, she lost the help, the love, the confidence and the support that come from a confession of Christ. Rome made the most of her renunciation, hurried her into the taking of the nun's veil, made of her talents and used her as best it could to further superstitious practices.

In the Irish-American Almanac of 1884, an authority with all Romanists, is a sketch of the author of the Nun of Kenmare. In it we are told that "Miss Mary Francis Clare Cusack was born on May 6, 1830, in Dublin, and that she belongs to a family which has played no unimportant part in Irish history—a family which produced a scion as Lord Chancellor Cusack, who was an intimate friend and admirer of the great Hugh O'Neill of Tyromen. She was educated in England, where she resided for many years and formed many friendships, but she never for a moment forgot that she was an Irish woman. 'I have the old blood in me,' she writes, although I was educated and lived in England many years.' At the age of sixteen she commenced to pen articles for the press. Being of an exceedingly studious nature and of a refined taste, she

took delight in tracing on paper the thoughts she entertained on various subjects. These essays were but the forerunners of the many works, more mature and more profound, which in later years made the convent of the Nun of Kenmare synonymous with the home of Irish literature." Alas, that she should have given her best days to the proclamation of error!

Her enthusiastic biographer declares "that from her childhood she evinced an innate desire to do works of charity and help the needy; and, prompted by a wish to devote her life to a mission of such a nature, in an untrammeled position, she joined a community of Protestant sisters, in which she entered on her career of charity. Here, however, she did not find herself altogether at home. Some idea induced her to believe that she was not, perhaps, in the right place, and this feeling grew into a conviction; until, ere long, we see her bidding adieu to the community in question and embracing the Roman Catholic faith. Her entry into the Catholic church was quickly followed by her novitiate and subsequent profession of a The late Cardinal Wiseman, who had confirmed her, received her into the convent soon after, on July 25, 1856. From the period when she became a Catholic his eminence urged her to continue her work at the pen. He saw how talented she was, and he desired that her talents should be properly exercised and cultivated. Cardinal Wiseman held Miss Cusack in high esteem; he encouraged her in all her undertakings, and a few days before his death he sent her a copy of the last work he ever penned." Thus a Romanist writes.

nun.

In the year 1861 the late Miss O'Hogan, sister of the Lord O'Hogan, founded the convent of the Poor Clares at Kenmare, County Kerry. To assist her in her enterprise and to work it out successfully, the services of Sister Mary Francis and her money were put in requisition; and it was for this reason she left England and threw in her lot with the Abbess O'Hogan and the other sisters who were entering upon their work in the wilds of Kerry. The convent lies imbedded amid the heath-clad mountains of Kerry. Here the broad Kenmare sweeps in its serpentine course. Here Sister Mary Francis lived, teaching poor children and devoting herself to literature. She contributed to the press in Ireland and America.

When the Irish famine came, she became a great benefactress.

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