Reclassed 1-25-39. Embo. VER PREFACE 'Look at Popery taking off the mask in Naples !' ERY few words are necessary to explain what have been the author's aim and hope in compiling the ensuing account. He has wished to set before his countrymen at home a true and vivid picture of Romanism as it lives and moves and grows amid congenial surroundings in its native land of Italy, the chosen home of the Pope-King, the cradle of the world-wide superstition that has become so gigantic and so formidable. Until the great year 1860, when the kingdom of Naples cast in its lot with united Italy, Romanism reigned without a rival and without control in the fair Southern realm of the Two Sicilies; here it expanded in unchecked freedom, and it would be difficult to point to another region where the peculiar mythology of the Romish religion has been more cordially accepted by the populace, and has more thoroughly dominated and coloured popular life; Spain itself cannot outrival South Italy for excess of superstitious devotion, nor can the Eternal City outdo fair Naples in hearty acceptance of the grossest materialistic travesties of Gospel truths. V 167549 A typical, but not extreme, instance of modern Romish religionism at home is supplied by the story of New Pompei and its great Sanctuary of the Madonna of the Rosary,' a Sanctuary which is the newest, the most fashionable, the most widely popular, the most successful of the countless miraculous' shrines devoted to the worship of that deified mortal, adored by good Roman Catholics the world overthat goddess who has inherited the attributes of many different Greek and Roman goddesses, and who is revered, not only as 'Mother of God,' but as being equal in power and glory with her Divine Son-the Papal Mary, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, the crowned Queen of Heaven, Victrix over heretics: in whom it is hard indeed to recognize the meek and holy Mary of the Gospels. The authentic story of the wonder-working Madonna of New Pompei' (her votaries fondly style her 'la Prodigiosa Vergine di Nuova Pompei') is derived from the accounts published by the founder of the Sanctuary, Don Bartolo Longo. He glories—and he well may glory-in the fact that the Sanctuary which he, a mere layman, originated and carried on to its present triumphant success -success not inferior to that of world-famous Lourdes - is under the special patronage of the reigning Pope Pius X., as it was under that of his immediate predecessor, Leo XIII. Two 'infallible ' Pontiffs have stamped the seal of their official approval on New Pompei and its shrine; their solemn benediction has been given to the enterprise and its promoters. Let those who study the record here presented to them bear in mind the significant fact that the Roman Catholic Church, through its official head, has identified itself with New Pompei. It is only requisite to say further that the author of this story of the 'Making of a Miracle' has watched the enterprise of Signor Longo at New Pompei through every stage of its advance, and that his relations with the founder of the Sanctuary have always been friendly. A. E. K. |