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INTRODUCTION. XV
that faith. It was here that he first became interested in the life and works of St. Philip Neri, who afterwards became his spiritual master.
Several times he was on the point of joining the Romish Communion; twice he took his hat to go to the Collegio Inglese to abjure, but some trifling circumstance interfered. He felt then that the step would sooner or later have to be taken, or he would lose his mind. His struggles were so severe that they permanently affected his health. At Florence, where he remained a few weeks writing a course of parish lectures "on the Sacred Infancy and Childhood of Our Lord," he was persuaded to wear a miraculous medal. He brought home with him two rosaries blessed by the Pope; he gave them to friends, who both became Catholics. It was by advice that he stayed yet a little longer in the Anglican Communion, though he had written a letter containing what seemed to him unanswerable arguments against that system. Even Dr. Newman had not yet come boldly out.
Faber took up his parochial work at Elton, forming a choir, having full cathedral service on Sundays and saints' days, and circulating a History of the Sacred Heart, which by many was considered to smack of popery. Three tracts which he wrote on examination of conscience were regarded as having a tendency to the establishment of Confession. |
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