The Spiritual Confrerences of SFS

A few words only seem called for to introduce the present volume. The edition of the Spiritual Conferences translated into English, which was published in 1862, has naturally long been out of print, and the translation itself, according to modern notions, although faithful enough to the French original, left much to be desired. It was therefore wisely determined by the Sisters of the Convent of the Visitation, at Harrow-on-the-Hill, to prepare an entirely new English version of the Conferences of St. Francis of Sales, in the belief that if they were made more readable, the practical and commonsense spiritual teaching of their great patron and founder, contained in them, might prove of some service to souls seeking for help in the interior life.

It was confidently hoped that this edition of the Conferences would have been edited by the late Dom Benedict Mackey, O.S.B. He indeed discussed the matter, and had undertaken it, with the design of giving in this English version a new preface founded upon that which he had contributed to the authentic version of the Spiritual Conferences.[1] He had actually begun the revision when death put an end to his work. What his loss has been to this undertaking only those who know what he has done in editing the works of St. Francis of Sales can appreciate. For more than twenty years he had been allowed by the Superiors of the English Benedictines to devote himself to this labour of love. The fourteen published volumes of the great Annecy Edition form his most fitting monument. He practically gave his life for his work, and to make the edition more complete he visited every library in Europe, and traced every scrap of a letter even into the hands of private individual collectors. It has lately been said of him that " there can be no doubt that by his death we have lost the man who knew more about St. Francis of Sales than any one else, living or dead."

Upon Dom Mackey's death it became necessary to consider what was the best course to pursue in regard to this present volume. As I had long urged the Religious of the Visitation to undertake the work, I felt bound to help them in the difficulty in which they were placed by this untimely death. One point had to be determined at the very beginning: Dom Mackey had not written his contemplated preface, and a translation of his introduction to the French Edition as a whole seemed uncalled for. He had left certain notes as to his intentions, and in a conversation with mo he had said that if Cardinal Wiseman's preface to the edition of 1862 was reprinted, it would be better not t publish the translation of the second part of his French preface, which dealt with the teaching of the Conferences in a spiritual point of view. This plan has been adopted. The first part of Dom Mackey’s preface, translated from the French, with some few omissions, here precedes the interesting preface which Cardinal Wiseman contributed to the print of 1862.

F. AIDAN GASQUET,

Abb. President O.S.B,

_______________________

[1] At Annecy, J. Niérat, 1895.