Tea at Trianon: Cornelia Connelly

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Cornelia Connelly

Among the many converts to Catholicism who have illumined the Church, there is the occasional bad apple. Pierce Connelly, Cornelia's husband, comes to mind. It is one thing to grasp the basic tenets of the Faith and be able to speak wittily about them. It is another to take up the Cross and be ready to die with Christ. Pierce was intellectually fascinated with Catholicism in a way that proved to be transitory and superficial. To Cornelia, however, her new faith was the blood of her heart.

Cornelia Peacock Connelly was born into a wealthy Philadelphia family in 1809. She married Pierce Connelly in 1831, a brilliant and charismatic young Episcopalian minister. They had five children, one of whom died in a horrific accident. In 1835, the family converted to Catholicism. They went to Rome where they were warmly welcomed and became very popular in society. Then in 1840, Pierce announced that he wanted to become a priest. It was odd that he prepared to embrace a celibate life by continuing to beget children with his wife; Cornelia was five months pregnant when he decided to answer the call. In order for Pierce to be ordained, Cornelia had to agree to make a solemn vow of chastity. After profound struggle and heartbreak, she acquiesced, and Pierce was ordained in Rome in 1845. Cornelia, who was already living in a convent with the youngest children, decided to become a nun. At the request of the pope, she went to England and founded a congregation of sisters, dedicated to teaching girls. Cornelia proved herself to be a creative and innovative teacher.

However, Pierce was not happy with his new vocation. He probably thought that as a priest he would dazzle everyone with his brilliant oratory skills and become a celebrity, maybe even a bishop. Instead, he was made an obscure chaplain in a private chapel. He rebelled, rejected his priesthood, and started to harass Cornelia at her convent. He took the children away from her to raise as Protestants, and sued Cornelia for denying him his conjugal rights. There was no small scandal but ultimately Cornelia prevailed. Her Society of the Holy Child flourished although she never saw her children again. Cornelia Connelly, through her vows of both marriage and of religion, entered deeply into the sacrificial mystery of the Lamb. Share