| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
XX |
INTRODUCTION. |
||
|
erected Brompton, where a site was purchased for ten thousand pounds, the anonymous gift of a lady. The church, long, low, and undecorated, cost four thousand pounds. Sermons were preached every evening, and many additional services — confession, devotions—attracted large numbers of the devout.
Faber, who remained during the rest of his life the head of this establishment, was indefatigable in his exertions. His labors, and particularly his anxieties about the pecuniary success of the undertaking, brought on frequent attacks of illness, which were the only interruptions of his work.
The selection of the devotions and hymns, the subjects and style of the sermons, the arrangement of the benedictions, the exact performance of every ceremony prescribed by the rubrics, were all the objects of his minute personal superintendence.
After 1856, he took upon himself the additional responsibility of novice-master. This duty brought upon him the labor of answering personal letters from all parts of the country.
He rarely left the Oratory, and then only to visit different establishments under the charge of the Fathers. His chief recreation was to pass a few days at St. Mary's, Sydenham, where he was able to exercise his natural taste for landscape gardening. " The indescribable charm of his private intercourse" and his " wonderful brilliancy of conversation," which |
|||