the biography of Father Alexis Clerc, who left the French Navy to become a Jesuit and professor of mathematics and was shot by the Communards in Paris 1871.[1]
But it is rather the success of his pupils over which the teacher rejoices, than their tribute of gratitude. An incident is related of the life of Father Bonifacio, a distinguished Jesuit teacher of the Old Society, who for more than forty years taught the classics. One day he was visited by his brother, a professor in a university, whom he had not seen for many years. When the professor heard that the Father had spent all the years of his life in the Society in teaching Latin and Greek to young boys, he exclaimed: "You have wasted your great talents in such inferior work! I expected to find you at least a professor of philosophy or theology. What have you done that this post is assigned to you?" Father Bonifacio quietly opened a little book, and showed him the list of hundreds of pupils whom he had taught, many of whom occupied high positions in Church or State, or in the world of business. Pointing at their names, the Father said with a pleasant smile: "The success which my pupils have achieved is to me a far sweeter reward than any honor which I might have
- ↑ Alexis Clerc, Sailor and Martyr, New York, Sadlier, 1879. See especially chap. XII: "Father Clerc and his pupils." It may be interesting to add that the American edition of this biography is dedicated to the memory of Father Andrew Monroe, S. J. (grand-nephew of President Monroe), officer in the American Navy and a convert to the Catholic faith, who, after spending his religious life, like his friend Father Clerc, chiefly in the humble duties of a professor, died at St. Francis Xavier College, New York, 1871.
