RT. REV. MGR. HUGH T. HENRY, LITT. D.

The list of hymns selected by Father Nerinckx for the Sisters of Loretto, published in the RECORDS for June, 1916, pages 116-119, will perhaps bear a brief comment here.

1. It is gratifying to a lover of the Salve Regina to know that one of its oldest English translations—and in some respects the happiest of any-should have found an abiding home in a Religious Community in the United States, should be so closely associated with the name of the Founder of the Community, and should properly, because of its constant use therein, be styled the "Hymn of a Century." Sister Mary Antonella Hardy, the writer of the highly interesting article, tells us that "throughout the years, copy after copy of words and music has been requested, especially by priests;" that the question was often asked: "Did Father Nerinckx make this translation of the Salve Regina?" and that no other information could be given than that the hymn was affectionately styled “ Father Nerinckx's hymn.” The full quotation of the hymn in the RECORDS for September, 1915 made it clear that Father Nerinckx was not the author; and in the RECORDS for December of the same year the present writer made grateful acknowledgment to Dr. W. H. Grattan Flood, who had kindly written from his home in Enniscorthy, Ireland, pointing out that the hymn was printed in the Primer of 1685.3

2

1

1 See A Philadelphia Choir Book of 1787, page 212.

2 See Philadelphia Choir Books of 1791 and 1814, page 326.

3 Apropos of this, it may be interesting to add that other, but less felicitous, versions had appeared in the Sarum Primer of 1538, and in the Primers of 1599 and 1615. Seventy years had elapsed between this last-mentioned translation and the classic one of the Primer of 1685. It is curious to note that the Primer of 1687 thought it desirable to print a prose version (Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy).

The American use of the hymn was frequent in our hymnals of older date, but appears to have ceased entirely in the more recently edited volumes containing hymns, whether issued in America or in the British Isles. I do not wonder that so many requests for copies of the hymn should have been made, under the impression that it was rare. But it seems pitiable that such a beautiful and brief version of the great Anthem of the Blessed Virgin should have been replaced in our hymnals by versified tributes to Our Lady which are very questionable from the standpoint of poetic taste and spiritual unction. The relatively venerable age of the English version might well have served to keep it in loving memory in both prayer-books and hymnals. And here in America it has been associated with our earliest hymnody. Thanks to such articles as that dealing with this hymn as well as with the collection assigned by Father Nerinckx for the Sisters of Loretto" we may hope to have at some future time a history of American Catholic hymnody which will possess more than a merely historical value.

2. Father Nerinckx's list of hymns comprises more than forty titles. Whence did he derive them? He could have found the English version of the Salve Regina in several volumes published in America before the year 1822. It is not necessary, therefore, to suppose that he might have obtained it "from his Reverend brother, John Nerinckx,

4 In addition to the Philadelphia Compilation of 1787, 1791 and 1814, I find it in the Roman Catholic Manual or Collection of Prayers, Anthems, Hymns, published in Boston in 1803; in a volume of Hymns for the Use of the Catholic Church in the United States of America, issued at Baltimore in 1807; in a Collection of Sacred Hymns for the Use of the Catholic Churches in Kentucky, printed at Bardstown in 1815; in a Collection of Psalms, Hymns, Anthems, etc., published in Washington, D. C., in 1830, and in A Colleccion of Sacred Hymns (Louisville, 1853).

5 See Hymn of a Century by Sister Mary Antonella Hardy in the RECORDS for June, 1916, pp. 113-126.

who, an exile from Belgium because of the Revolution, was ordained in London in the year 1802," as Sister Mary Antonella suggests. But what was his source for the remaining hymns? All but three of the hymns in his collection are given in Hymns for the Use of the Catholic Church in the United States (Baltimore, 1807). This fact is highly suggestive, but not conclusive; for the title of No. 4 ("Whilst Angels to the world proclaim") is so found in the Compilation of 1787, 1791, 1814, but the word "Whilst" is changed to "While" in the 1807 volume of Hymns. Of the three hymns I have referred to as not given in the 1807 volume, one (No. 7: "Through all the changing scenes of life") is found in the Compilation of 1787, 1791, 1814, and also in the Manual (Boston, 1803). I am indebted to Sister M. Antonella Hardy for the information that the remaining two (No. 14: "I hear a charming voice"), No. 28: (“O Mother of the light ") are found in Collection of Sacred Hymns for the Use of the Catholic Churches in Kentucky (Bardstown, 1815).

3. "Father Nerinckx' injunction that no new songs nor new tunes besides those now in use at Loreto' be brought in, was a wise provision against the introduction of nonCatholic words and music. Unconscious he must have been of the certain Protestant authorship of 'Through all the changing scenes of life,' and the same authorship suspected of 'While angels to the world proclaim,' and ‘O praise ye the Lord."" There are other hymns in the list besides these, however, which are of Protestant authorship. No. 8 ("Grateful notes and numbers bring") is by the Rev. Wm. Dodd, an Anglican; No. 10 ("Jesus, lover of my soul") is by the Rev. Charles Wesley; No. 18 (“Welcome, sweet day of rest ") is by the Rev. Isaac Watts. I merely note these without comment, although much might

• Cf. RECORDS, June, 1916, p. 119 and September, 1915, p. 220.

be said about No. 10 and its use in Catholic hymnals. It is a beautiful hymn-confessedly so by the suffrages of hymnals of all denominations."

4. No. 30 is a translation of the Stabat Mater (“Under the world's redeeming wood "). The first line, as given in Father Nerinckx's list, is thus found in the Boston Manual of 1803, in the Baltimore Hymns of 1807, and in the Washington Collection of 1830. It is a corruption (possibly meant as an emendation) of the true title: "Under the world-redeeming Rood." This is a version of the Stabat Mater found in the Primer of 1687 (as a new rendering of the great Sequence) and in subsequent Primers and Officebooks. It is not improbable that Dryden was its author, for his conversion to Catholicity took place in 1686—one year before the translation appeared-and he is known to have translated some of the old Latin hymns of the Divine Office. Certainly the unction, the poetic diction, the powerful rhythms, the close antitheses, of this exquisite poem are worthy of his pen. What could better illustrate all these peculiarities than the third line of the first stanza?

Under the world-redeeming Rood
The most afflicted Mother stood,

Mingling her tears with her Son's blood.

One may well question the taste of the compilers of present-day prayer-books that could forget such venerable treasures of sacred verse as the translations of the Salve Regina and the Stabat Mater which the elegant discrimination and the deep and tender piety of Father Nerinckx have so fortunately made part of the hymnal treasury of the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross-at the Foot of the world-redeeming Rood."

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Sister Mary Antonella Hardy writes to state that Dr. W. H. Grattan Flood declares No. 13 ("My God, my life, my love") to be also of Protestant authorship.-EDITOR.

THE CAPUCHINS IN ACADIA AND NORTHERN MAINE

(1632-1655)

REV. JOHN LENHART, O. M. CAP.

(Continued)

LABORS AMONG THE INDIANS.

The Capuchins did not restrict their labors to their Abenaki Seminary and to the care of the French settlers. They worked successfully at the conversion and civilization of the Indians throughout the whole extent of their large missionary field. "The soft and religious influence of the Capuchins," remarks Rameau,119 "contributed not a little to the establishment and consolidation of the peaceful relations between the French and the Indians." "The universal fidelity of the Micmacs to the faith of their baptism," writes Father Candide, O. M. Cap.,120 "seems to us to be due to a great extent to the influence of the Capuchins. The instruction of the 'Barefooted' Friars, whose memory is still alive among them, must be traced back to the time of the Capuchins. It blended later with that the Recollects who reentered this mission in 1673. The Micmacs still retain the memory of the two kinds of missionaries who had evangelized them: the Black Robes' and the 'Barefooters' The latter designation had been a puzzle to them for a long time. They found its solution in 1894 when the Capuchins made their appearance in the Micmac mission at Ristigouche."

Moreover, the spectacle of a staunchly Catholic colony

119 Op. cit., p. 88.

120 Port Royal, p. 336.