New Saint

The ponderous, pious machinery of the Roman Catholic Church last week produced a new saint. Andre-Hubert Fournet (1752-1834) was a stout defender of the faith during the troublesome French Revolution. Ordained priest, he declined in 1791 to swear allegiance to the civil government. In retirement he tried to hold his parish together, sometimes saying masses in caves like the Early Christians. Andre Fournet was twice exiled to Spain, returned in 1801. In 1806 he founded the Daughters of the Holy Cross, for work among poor girls, with Jeanne Marie Elizabeth Lucie Bichier des Ages, who had also been persecuted.

Andre Fournet was declared "Blessed" in 1926. This spring in secret consistory the Pope and his Cardinals voted canonization. Last week Pius XI left the Vatican for the third time in this Holy Year, proceeded solemnly to St. Peter's. On one platform were kinsmen of St. Andre, a nun who said her life had been saved through his intercession, and representatives of the Daughters of the Holy Cross. On another were President Eamon de Valera of Irish Free State, Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss of Austria, Princesses Germaine of Habsburg-Lorraine and Elisabeth of Bourbon-Parme. The Pope assumed the Papal throne. A Cardinal and two other prelates approached, knelt, begged thrice that Blessed Andre Fournet be declared a saint. The Pope twice told all to pray for God's assistance, then declared the petition granted. Silver trumpets blew, all the bells of Rome rang loudly. By ancient ritual the Cardinals offered Pius XI loaves of bread, kegs of wine and water, cages of doves, pigeons, nightingales and other birds. The Holy Father, 76, appeared pale towards the end, but not otherwise affected by muggy heat and four and one-half hours of ceremonial during which many people fainted. At one point a madman jumped on a chair, began haranguing the crowd in a loud voice, was removed by the police.

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