LETTER XL
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRECIS HISTORIQUES, BRUSSELS.
Father John Anthony Elet.
UNIVERSITY OF ST. LOUIS
REVEREND FATHER :
I present a brief biographical notice of our countryman, the Rev. Father Elet, of the Society of Jesus, a religious who accomplished much good, and whose memory is held in benediction.
John Anthony Elet was born at St. Amand, in the province of Antwerp, on the 19th of February, 1802. Having completed his early studies in the college of Mechlin with much distinction, under the direction of the venerable Mr. Verloo, he entered the ecclesiastical seminary of the same town. These two establishments, which have given many learned men to Belgium, were ever dear to Iris heart; to the hour of his death, it was a consolation and delight to him to hear and speak of them.
In 1821, at the age of nineteen, he took the generous resolution of quitting his country, under the guidance of the apostle of Kentucky, the very Rev. Mr. Nerinckx, in order to devote himself to the forsaken missions of North America.
He began his novitiate in Maryland, on the 6th of October, 1828. Before the close of his two years of probation, he was sent, with several Fathers, brothers, and novices, all Belgians, but one brother who was an American, to Missouri, to establish a mission amid the old French settlements, the new American ones, and the wandering tribes of Indians, dispersed throughout this vast territory.
Father Elet finished, his course of philosophy and theology under Fathers Van Quickenborne, born at Peteghen-lez Deynze, and De Theux, born at Liege, and was ordained priest in 1827, by Mgr. Rosati, bishop of St. Louis.
He had the consolation of seeing the mission which was at first so small and weak, erected into a vice-province, and extended into Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Louisiana, Indian Territory (now Kansas and Nebraska), and forming beyond the Rocky Mountains in Oregon, Washington, and California, the nucleus of a new mission, which promises ere long to equal the most flourishing. To all this success he had greatly contributed.
Father Elet, one of the first founders of the university of St. Louis, was president of this institution for several years. In 1840, he was sent to Cincinnati, chief town of Ohio, to take the direction of the college of St. Xavier, which the Rt. Rev. Bishop of that city, Mgr. Purcell (now archbishop), had just confided to the Society of Jesus. In a short time Father Elet erected in addition a free-school, sufficiently extensive to allow the admission of four or five hundred poor children.
Mgr. Flaget,, the first, and for a long time the sole bishop of the whole immense valley of the Mississippi, which extends from the Alleghany mountains on the west, to the Rocky Mountains on the east, invited the Jesuit Fathers to Kentucky, and offered them, through his worthy coadjutor and successor, Bishop Spalding, his beautiful college of St. Joseph, situated at Bardstown, thirty-nine miles from Louisville, one of the oldest and most renowned of the educational establishments of this portion of the great American confederacy; and which has sent out several illustrious bishops, and a great number eminent in Church and State. Father Elet was at that time vice-provincial. A short time after, he opened a house of education at Louisville.
During his provincialship, he sustained a very painful loss in the person of his brother, Father Charles Louis Elet, who having arrived in 1848 to share his labors, died at St. Joseph's college on the 23d of March, 1849, at the age of thirty-seven. He felt a deep sorrow at this death, not only because he lost a brother, but because the province was thus deprived of a zealous priest-snatched away in the flower of his age, and from whom such eminent services might have been expected. Yet his grief was mingled with great consolation. His brother had left in Belgium the remembrance of an exemplary life wholly devoted to the good of others -during his short sojourn in America, he had ever shown himself the model of a fervent and charitable religious. A holy death crowned so edifying a life. The Bishop of Louisville, who visited him in his last hours, announced his death to the Provincial, in a letter as honorable to the noblehearted writer, as to the pious sentiments of him whose loss it deplores. I insert the letter, it is dated
"BARDSTOWN, 23d of March, 1849.
"MY DEAR FATHRR ELET:-Allow me to unite my voice to that of those numerous friends, who will offer you their sympathy on the occasion of the melancholy event, which this day's post will inform yon. I mean the death of your very holy and amiable brother. Providence permitted me to be here at the moment. I had the happiness of visiting him twice. On these occasions, I gave him with my whole heart the episcopal benediction. He devoutly kissed my pectoral cross, which contains a relic of the Holy Cross. I cannot tell you how much he edified me by his mild tranquillity under the most painful agony. He showed every mark of an elect of God-and if God-loved him more than you did, resign him cheerfully into his adorable hands. Is it not better to have a brother in heaven than on earth ? I hope to be able to attend his funeral, and will offer the Holy Sacrifice for the repose of his soul. In the midst of the sorrow caused by this mournful and mysterious decree of Providence, I congratulate myself that Kentucky possesses the mortal remains of your holy brother.
"Deploring most sincerely your loss, I am &c.,
" M. J. SPALDING, Bishop)."
Father John Anthony Elet did not long survive his worthy brother. He had never enjoyed robust health, and had passed about thirty years in America in incessant labor. When still young, he had discovered alarming symptoms of a kind of consumption. It manifested itself anew, and with greater violence, towards the end of the year 1850, during a journey which he made to Louisiana, for business relative
to the society. He continued, however, to fill the charge of vice-provincial until about the middle of the following year, when he withdrew to the novitiate of St. Stanislaus, to prepare for death. He beheld it rapidly approaching, but far from fearing, he desired it with his whole heart. Not, that he wished to be delivered from earthly sufferings, but because his love for Christ inflamed him with a burning desire to be united to his divine Saviour. His piety, which had always been distinguished, now seemed to transport him, and, like the glorious sunset, reflected the virtues he had practised during life. Some days before his death, although scarce able to walk, he dragged himself with difficulty to the domestic chapel, and remained there for a considerable
time prostrate before the altar in a profound adoration. On the 1st of October, eve of the Feast of the Holy Angels, at the moment when the Holy Viaticum was brought to him, and the words "Domine non sum dignus," were pronounced, he was heard distinctly repeating, "Non sum dignus, Domine, non sum dignus!" (I am not worthy, Lord, I am not worthy.) To a prayer in honor of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, he added aloud these words, " Credo, credo, Domine Jesu !" (I believe, I believe, Lord Jesus.) He afterwards expressed a lively wish to die on the Feast of the Holy Angels. God, whose will he bad so faithfully fulfilled, was pleased to hear the desires of his servant. On the next day, towards midnight, it was proposed to impart the last absolution: " Yes," said he, "it is the moment." Some seconds after a beautiful prayer of St. Charles Borromeo was recited. When they came to the passage where the saint acknowledges that "he has sinned," but adds, that "he had never denied the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," Father Elet exclaimed "never! never!" After having kissed the crucifix for the last time with the most touching devotion, at midnight precisely, during the renewal of the absolution, he expired, like one falling into a gentle slumber.
Father Elet had a special devotion to the Holy Angels, Every year, during his rectorship, on their festival, he requested all the Fathers to offer mass in their honor, so as to obtain a special protection over the whole house. He had also introduced in several places, that devotion to the Sacred heart of Jesus, which is observed on the first Friday of every month -encouraging the pious practice of receiving commission on that day, and of making an act of reparation to the Sacred Heart, which a priest recites before the altar, closing the pious service by the benediction of the blessed
Sacrament. It was remarked that he expired precisely at the hour in which the Feast of the Holy Angels terminated, and the first Friday of the month commenced.
Father John Anthony Elet was loved and respected wherever he was known ; he was universally regretted. In the United States, a territory almost as extensive as the whole of Europe, where the Catholic clergy are so few that they would scarcely supply one single diocese of Belgium, the death of every good priest leaves a gap in the ranks which all feel. Father Elet's death would shed a gloom over many zealous hearts, did they not hope that from above he will intercede for America, more powerfully than he could have done in our midst.
D. O. M.,
P. J. DE SMET, S: J.