The Abbe Edgeworth
Type
Book
Authors
Category
Catholic Biography
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Publication Year
1946
Publisher
Longmans, Green and Co., United States
Pages
202
Description
No braver or more selfless action is recorded in the annals of the French Revolution than that of the Abbe Edgeworth when with quiet courage he mounted the steps of the scaffold by the side of Louis XVI and assisted him to die.
This Abbe was the son of an Irish vicar who had settled in Toulouse following his conversion to the Catholic Church. Educated in France form the age of four, the boy became almost completely French. He had always wanted to be a priest, and following his ordination took up his work in Paris among the poorest of the city.
He was no preacher, but early revealed himself an able spiritual director, both astute and understanding. The Revolution found him still working in comparative obscurity. Then a surprising summons came to him to go to the Tuileries to interview Mme. Elizabeth, the King's unmarried sister. He became Mme. Elizabeth's confessor, and so deeply impressed her that the King sent for this unknown Abbe on the eve of his execution.
His subsequent escapes from the guillotine, his flight to England, his journey into exile as chaplain to Louis XVIII, his death amid the snows of Russia, have not only excitement and color but the grandeur and dramatic irony of a Sophoclean tragedy. He was a man whose sense of duty led him to sacrifice his talents and tastes in the service of an exiled monarch whose wanderings he shared.
The author has told this story as far as possible in the Abbe's own words, by a skillful use of his letters.
A word about the author
Mildred Violet Woodgate was born in Ireland and comes of a family distinguished in the writing and legal professions. Somerville and Ross are her cousins, and one of her uncles was Attorney General and another Solicitor General of Ireland. She left her native land as a child, and has spent most of her life in England, although she has traveled a good deal in France and Italy. She has always been interested in French history, and for the past six years has been working almost exclusively on French biographies. In this period she has published Louise de Marillac (Herder), Pere Lacordaire (Sands), Madame Elizabeth of France (Browne & Nolan) and Jacqueline Pascal (Herder). It was while working on the life of Madame Elizabeth that she became interested in the character of her confessor, the Abbe Edgeworth, and found that little had been written on him either in French or English. She was fortunate in meeting at Oxford Professor H. E. Butler, a descendant of the Edgeworth family, who supplied her with further interesting material.
Miss Woodgate's earlier books were boy's adventure stories or fiction, the former written under another name. Her own favorite is The Silver Mirror, a novel published in England by Geoffrey Bles.
Taken from the inside flaps.
This Abbe was the son of an Irish vicar who had settled in Toulouse following his conversion to the Catholic Church. Educated in France form the age of four, the boy became almost completely French. He had always wanted to be a priest, and following his ordination took up his work in Paris among the poorest of the city.
He was no preacher, but early revealed himself an able spiritual director, both astute and understanding. The Revolution found him still working in comparative obscurity. Then a surprising summons came to him to go to the Tuileries to interview Mme. Elizabeth, the King's unmarried sister. He became Mme. Elizabeth's confessor, and so deeply impressed her that the King sent for this unknown Abbe on the eve of his execution.
His subsequent escapes from the guillotine, his flight to England, his journey into exile as chaplain to Louis XVIII, his death amid the snows of Russia, have not only excitement and color but the grandeur and dramatic irony of a Sophoclean tragedy. He was a man whose sense of duty led him to sacrifice his talents and tastes in the service of an exiled monarch whose wanderings he shared.
The author has told this story as far as possible in the Abbe's own words, by a skillful use of his letters.
A word about the author
Mildred Violet Woodgate was born in Ireland and comes of a family distinguished in the writing and legal professions. Somerville and Ross are her cousins, and one of her uncles was Attorney General and another Solicitor General of Ireland. She left her native land as a child, and has spent most of her life in England, although she has traveled a good deal in France and Italy. She has always been interested in French history, and for the past six years has been working almost exclusively on French biographies. In this period she has published Louise de Marillac (Herder), Pere Lacordaire (Sands), Madame Elizabeth of France (Browne & Nolan) and Jacqueline Pascal (Herder). It was while working on the life of Madame Elizabeth that she became interested in the character of her confessor, the Abbe Edgeworth, and found that little had been written on him either in French or English. She was fortunate in meeting at Oxford Professor H. E. Butler, a descendant of the Edgeworth family, who supplied her with further interesting material.
Miss Woodgate's earlier books were boy's adventure stories or fiction, the former written under another name. Her own favorite is The Silver Mirror, a novel published in England by Geoffrey Bles.
Taken from the inside flaps.
Number of Copies
1
