Adventures of a Missionary, Priest, and Tireless Promoter of the Sacred Heart

Americans went about their business as usual on September 18, 1875. The news of the birth of a baby boy in Arequipa, Peru did not make the local papers. Even if it had, it wouldn’t have made any impression, for who in the United States had ever heard of Arequipa or the Crawley-Boevey family? 

Because of him, thousands of Catholic homes would receive extraordinary blessings from the Sacred Heart. Tens of thousands would rise at night to make reparation to the Sacred Heart in their own homes. And, today, thanks to this man, many of these Americans are probably enjoying the beatific vision. Sixty-five years later, this same boy, then a priest, would come to the United States and Canada to preach the love and mercy of the Sacred Heart for some six years.

Long before this, his influence had been felt in homes throughout the land, yet for the first time his many friends and admirers could see and listen to the one who had so deeply affected their lives. Those who were privileged to hear him are still talking about the experience. For Father Mateo, the famed “apostle of the Sacred Heart,” spoke with an eloquence that stirred the soul and moved the will.

Be a Saint or Stay Home!

 

Father Mateo’s father was an English banker, a member of an old and distinguished English family, the Crawley-Boeveys, communicants of the Anglican Church. Sent to Peru by his ban, there he met and married Señorita Maria Murga, daughter of a justice of the Supreme Court of Peru, a strong Catholic. Of this union were born eleven children, of whom Mateo Edward was the third. Mateo’s father, himself a convert, was not a practicing Catholic. However, he was basically a religious man. He placed no obstacles in the way of the practice of the faith of his pious wife and their children; on the contrary, he gave them every possible encouragement.

An example of his upright character and sense of justice is to be found in his attitude toward his son’s vocation. When Edward informed his father that he wanted to join the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts, his father visited the superior to find out the superior to find out the true purpose and goal of a religious congregation. On returning home, he informed his son that he had been to find out the main purpose of the life which the priests and brothers were leading. It was, said Edward’s father, “to become a saint,” and if Edward was determined to strive to reach that goal, if he really had made up his mind to become a saint, then he had his father’s permission to join. Otherwise, he had better stay home.

“My father,” comments Father Mateo, “was not a practicing Catholic, but he was an intelligent man.” He gave his son a lesson he never forgot and one that the future retreat master would hand on to countless priests and religious throughout the world. For years, Edward’s mother went daily to Mass and Communion, in spite of the burden of raising a large family. Fervently she prayed for the conversion of her husband. Although God seemed to be deaf to her prayers, she never lost hope. Years later, she had the happiness of seeing her spouse begin the practice of his faith and become a staunch Catholic. He died relatively young and under unusual circumstances on February 15, 1898, at the age of 49. One day immediately after receiving Holy Communion he had a stroke. He received the last rites and died in church. His Communion proved to be his Viaticum. This special grace given to Mr Crawley-Boevey had a profound effect on his son, soon to be ordained a priest, and strengthened his confidence in the fidelity of the Sacred Heart to His promises.

Saved by a Stomach Ache

 

When Edward was still a baby, his father was ordered to report back to England, where he was to remain for several years. His wife and Edward were to go with him. The boy’s grandfather was alarmed, for he feared that the child might be reared as a Protestant in the Crawley-Boevey home in England. Something had to be done to keep the child in Peru. But what?

The devout grandfather prayed hard that God would save the situation. He did, and in a very unexpected way. The day for departure arrived. The family, accompanied by the family doctor, set out for the seaport whence they were to set sail for England. Little Edward hadn’t been feeling too well. That’s why the doctor came along; in fact, as the train trip progressed, so did Edward’s stomach ache. So much so, that by the time they reached the dock he was seriously ill. Then ensued a dramatic scene. The grandfather pleaded with the parents to entrust their child to his care. The distraught father and mother were torn between love for their child, whom they wished to take with them and fear that Edward would not survive the long voyage. When the doctor finally told them that the trip might mean the death of the boy, they gave in.

Handing the sick child to the grandfather, they made him promise he would send Edward to England with friends or relatives at the first opportunity. The grandfather, secretly elated at this turn of events, assured the parents that this would be done. But somehow, he never could find anyone trustworthy enough to bring the child to England! This problem lasted for a number of years. In the meantime, the grandfather would take Edward to church with him each morning. Years later Father Mateo liked to say that he began going to daily Mass even as a baby. In any case, there was no doubt that the early religious formation of the future missionary was deep and solid.

The Sacred Heart Fathers 

 

At length the parents returned to Peru and in 1884 moved to Valparaiso, Chile. Edward was sent to the school conducted by the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts, Sacred Hearts College. Here he was to find his vocation.

It is marvelous to see how our Lord goes about the accomplishment of His will in regard to certain souls whom He has selected to be His instruments. We have just seen how a stomach ache kept Edward Crawley-Bovey in South America and within the folds of the Catholic Church. Years before, something else had happened to keep the Sacred Hearts Fathers in Chile when actually they were destined for South Seas missions. Were it not for this fact, we might not have Father Mateo today.

In 1836, a group of Sacred Hearts Fathers and Brothers were on their way from France to the missions of the South Pacific. As was the custom they stopped off in Chile to prepare for the last stage of their long and arduous journey. Badly needing priests, the bishop asked them to stay. They refused, saying they had orders to go to the missions. He then commanded them to stay in Chile, promising he would write to the superior general to explain matters. And so he did. Thus began the important mission of the Sacred Hearts Fathers in South America.

Today they are to be found in Chile, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador. Among their accomplishments has been the establishment of the Catholic University at Lima, Peru, and at Valparaiso, Chile, besides other school and colleges. But not the least of their achievements has been the formation they gave to the future founder of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the home. 

Revolution and Reparation

At this point it might be well to say a few words about the congregation that has given two great priests to the world: Father Damien, the “Apostle of Molokai,” and Father Mateo, the “Apostle of the Sacred Heart.”

It is difficult to understand the spirit that animated these two famous missionaries without knowing something of the religious family to which they belonged. There was nothing prosaic about the beginnings of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. To appreciate this fact, imagine someone trying to establish a new religious order in the Yugoslavia or Poland of today. This will give us some idea of the difficulties that faced Father Mary Joseph Coudrin in the terror-stricken France of 1793, when he laid the foundations of his new community.

The Bravery of Fr. Coudrin

 

The adventures of Father Coudrin in those days read like pages from stories of priests who penetrate into Moscow and eve offer Holy Mass in the very headquarters of the dreaded secret police. Father Coudrin succeeded in getting in and out of the prisons, without the knowledge of the jailers, to offer Mass. How he succeeded, was his carefully guarded secret. In the library of the Irish Seminary in Paris, erected there because of the English persecution of the Catholic Church, there is a slab commemorating the secret ordination of the young priest in 1739. It had to be secret – and dangerous, too – for the revolutionaries were holding a meeting in the chapel below!

From then on it was to be one series of adventures after another, as the young priest began to play a deadly game of hide-and-seek with the police.

Like Father Pro, the Mexican Jesuit, he assumed many disguises, sometimes as a baker with a huge loaf of bread on his head, at other times as a peasant, or gendarme. In spite of many narrow escapes, he managed to avoid detection and certain death; God was preserving him for an important undertaking, the foundation of a new community of religious destined to spread devotion to the Sacred Hearts throughout the world.

One day, while making his thanksgiving after Holy Mass in the loft of a barn where he had been hiding for some months, he had a vision. He seemed to see himself and an unknown woman as founders of a new congregation of men and women, whose members would kneel before the Blessed Sacrament day and night in reparation to the Sacred Hearts for the crimes of sinners. At the same time, he saw white-clad missionaries carrying the message of the Gospel and the love of the Sacred Hearts to pagans in far-off islands. Soon after, Divine Providence guided his steps to Poitiers, where he become spiritual director of a small group of women, banded together under the title of “Society of the Sacred Heart,” whose purpose was to make perpetual adoration and to carry on works of mercy. Among those ladies was a young noblewoman, Countess Henriette de la Chevalerie. The countess, saved from death at the guillotine by the death of Robespierre only a short time before, had joined the society upon her release from prison and had become the most fervent of the adorers.

When Father Coudrin saw her, he recognized her as the woman he had seen in the vision in the barn a La Motte. Soon after, she became con-foundress of the new congregation; A property was purchased on the Rue de Picpus in Paris, adjoining the famous Picpus Cemetery, wherein are buried the some 1700 victims of the guillotine and famous members of the French nobility, including Lafayette.

The task of praying in perpetuity for their souls was entrusted to the new congregation by the owner of the cemetery, a member of a noble family who had lost many relatives in the Revolution. Perpetual Adoration began there in 1803 and since has never been interrupted.

Growth for a Fresh Reboot for Catholicism in France

 

The congregation, the first to be established after the French Revolution, spread rapidly. In 1825, Father Coudrin was asked to send missionaries to Oceania, hitherto without Catholic priests. They began their work in Hawaii in 1827. Since then the congregation has spread to all parts of the world.  The purpose of this community is to practice and propagate devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and to make reparation to these two Hearts by perpetual adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The members endeavor to imitate in their own lives the four stages of our Lord’s life:

• His childhood by education;
• His hidden life by adoration;
• His public life by preaching; and
• His crucified life by the practice of penance and mortification.

The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts is characterized by the spirit of a true family: charity, simplicity and the spirit of sacrifice. Relatively small in numbers, its history is one of trials and tribulations, it strikingly exemplifies the words of the Sacred Heart to St Margaret Mary: “My reign will be established in the midst of contradictions an only by weak and despised subjects…” This then is the congregation to which Father Mateo belongs and which has stamped its spirit so deeply upon him.

Setting the World on Fire with One Match

 

Father Coudrin, through his followers, wanted to set the whole world on fire with love for the Sacred Hearts. Father Mateo didn’t succeed in doing just that, yet he certainly has set many big fires all over the world, and some of them are still blazing. But since “charity begins at home,” Father Mateo began by lighting a bonfire right in Valparaiso. Realizing the need of strengthening the faith and knowledge for both the upper and lower classes, he instituted a course of law for the former and established a social center for the latter.

In 1900 the social center of Santiago laid down the following directives: Make the royalty of Jesus Christ known and loved; make reparation for public offenses against Him; bring Jesus the Redeemer in contact with the entire family – father, mother and children.

In this program we recognize the beginnings of the Enthronement crusade. With the help of a wealthy benefactress, a Mrs. Edwards, the young priest succeeded in building a school of law as a part of the Sacred Hearts College. He himself gave several courses in it. It was solemnly dedicated in May, 1906. At last his dream had come true. But soon the dream would turn into a nightmare, and the new building would be transformed into a heap of rubble. Father Mateo’s faith would be put to a severe test. Apparently the fire was about to be extinguished.

Giving Thanks after a Tragic Earthquake

 

One sunny, quiet day in August, the day after the Feast of the Assumption, Father Mateo was with a group of fellow priests in the courtyard of the Sacred Hearts College taking recreation. The bell had just rung to announce the end of the recreation period. As they were about to enter the building, the earth suddenly began to tremble violently beneath their feet. They threw themselves to the ground, expecting to be crushed at any moment by falling walls.

It was all over in a short time, but what havoc had been wrought in that short period of time! Scenes of destruction everywhere met the eye. The huge steeple of the beautiful collegiate church had crashed into the sanctuary, and untold damage had been done to the college buildings. But none of the religious had lost his life, although the death toll in the city ran high.  Standing in the midst of the ruins of what had been his beloved school of law, Father Mateo was tempted to ask, “Why did You let this happen?” But he didn’t. He made an act of blind faith in the infinite Wisdom of God. He says he never regretted it. In fact, he now thanks the Sacred Heart for having permitted the earthquake: “Were it not for that fact, I might never have become the ‘globe trotter’ of the Sacred Heart.”

The Sacred Heart Image Spared

 

One of the few things in the Sacred Hearts College not damaged by the earthquake was a large oil painting of the Sacred Heart. It was found hanging at a crazy angle from a beam, dust-covered but unharmed. Since this picture has had great influence on Father Mateo’s career and the beginnings of the Enthronement, it is important – and interesting – to know the story behind it.

The picture had been painted by an outstanding Ecuadorian artist by the order of Gabriel Garcia Moreno, and was used for the solemn consecration of Ecuador to the Sacred Heart in 1873. Garcia Moreno was without doubt one of the greatest Catholic statesmen of the nineteenth century. An ardent champion of the rights of the pope and the Catholic Church, a fearless soldier and fiery patriot, and an eminent educator – he founded schools and colleges, and even taught catechism himself – a reformer of morals, clever planner and farseeing statesman, he had but one goal: “To restore all things under the headship of Christ.”

Keenly aware of the need of extraordinary graces for his country, he turned to the source of all graces, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Thoroughly familiar with the revelations made by our Lord to St Margaret Mary at Paray-le-Monial, and clearly understanding what so many others have failed to understand   - the social aspects of devotion to the Sacred Heart, summed up in the words of our Lord, “I will reign in spite of My enemies… I will reign through My Heart,” he decided officially to consecrate his country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the King of kings. No doubt he knew that our Lord had explicitly mad this same request of King Louis XIV of France, by means of St Margaret Mary; that He had promised the king that France would be protected and blessed of the king erected a chapel in honor of the Sacred Heart and would have the Sacred Heart placed on the French flag in recognition of the sovereign dominion of the Sacred Heart over France.

The king, for some unknown reason, failed to carry out this request. A century later, the terror of the French Revolution broke out in France and started that once-proud country downward to physical and moral miseries unparalleled in her long and troubled history.

Garcia Moreno was not merely a student of history; he profited by what he learned. He determined to do what Louis XIV had failed to do and what he knew the Sacred Heart wanted every nation to do: publicly and officially proclaim Jesus Christ the King of its country. Moreno’s act of faith was not in vain. His country, Ecuador, was consecrated to the Sacred Heart, and by decree of Parliament, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, requested by our Lord Himself, became a national feast day and was ordered celebrated in all churches with great solemnity on the Friday following the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi. The picture of the Sacred Heart was installed in the place of honor in the House of Parliament as an outward sign of Ecuador’s consecration to the Sacred Heart. It was eminently suitable for this purpose. As can be seen on the cover, the universal kingship of the Sacred Heart is strikingly symbolized by the scepter and the globe. If we look closely we will see, close to the heart of Savior, the little country of Ecuador being inflamed with a ray of light and fire from the loving heart of Jesus.

Naturally, this remarkable public act of faith and love – so unusual in this age of skepticism and public revolt from the authority of Christ – infuriated His enemies, of whom the chief were the Freemasons. They plotted to overthrow the hated Catholic regime and to kill its leader. Moreno knew what was going on and must have had a premonition that he would meet with a violent death, for he wrote to the pope, Pius IX: “What greater happiness can be awarded to me, most Holy Father, than to see myself detested and calumniated for the love of our Divine Redeemer: But what still greater happiness would it be if your benediction could obtain from heaven the grace to shed my blood for Him Who, being God, has deigned to shed every drop of His at the pillar and upon the cross?”

On August 4, 1875, he wrote to a friend, “I am about to be assassinated, but I am happy to die for the faith. We shall meet one another in heaven.” An example of the courage of this brave leader is found in the following story. The president was warned that a barber who was coming to the presidential residence to shave him was in reality an assassin and was planning to cut Moreno’s throat. The president received the man as though he knew nothing, an allowed him to prepare him for shaving. As the barber, razor in hand, was about to begin, Moreno calmly drew a revolver, laid It on a nearby table, an informed his would-be killer that one false move out of him and he would be a dead man.

Murder on the First Friday

 

But Moreno’s treacherous enemies were determined to have his life. Next time they would not fail. The devout president had the custom of making a Holy Hour each First Friday in the cathedral across the square from the House of Parliament. On the First Friday of August, 1875, which happened to be the Feast of the Transfiguration, Garcia Moreno went to the cathedral to make his Holy Hour. That day he had a double reason for spending some time before the Blessed Sacrament, for he was about to make an important speech in defense of the rights of the Church against her enemies.

In the square outside, a group of assassins waited impatiently for the president to emerge. Finally one of their number went into the cathedral to tell the president he was wanted in Parliament. Soon after, Moreno emerged and started across the square. Without warning, his murders jumped on him from behind and struck him repeatedly over the head with a machete and other instruments. The president fell to the pavement, covered with blood. Loving hands carried his mangled body to the cathedral, where, lying in a pool of blood on the sacristy floor, he received the last rites of the church he had loved so ardently and had so fiercely defended. In his pocket, stained with his blood, they found the manuscript of his prepared speech. This manuscript is now enshrined in the Vatican. Moreno’s last words were typical: “God does not die.”

So died the heroic Catholic leader of Ecuador. His death was the price he paid for daring to consecrate his country to the Sacred Heart. Following Moreno’s death, a revolution broke out. Twice, attempts were made to burn the Sacred Heart painting. Providentially it was saved from the hands of enemies by members of Moreno’s family and was entrusted for safekeeping to a Father of the Sacred Hearts from Chile who was then in Ecuador on vocational work. The picture was given in trust to the provincial of the Sacred Hearts Fathers in Valparaiso.

Father Mateo Finds a Picture

 

Years later, young Father Mateo was helping his provincial arrange his archives. Going through a trunk, he came upon a rolled-up canvas. He spread it out and was struck by what he saw. The picture seemed to symbolize everything he was working for: the recognition of the sovereign rights of Jesus, the King, ruling over every phase of society by the power of HIs love, though His Heart. Eagerly he asked his superior where the picture came from. In amazement and with a feeling that Garcia Moreno was handing over to him the standard of the King of Love to carry on the fight for the recognition of His rule over men and nations, he listened to the story. He asked if he might have the picture. The permission was granted on condition that he have it framed and that it be kept in the possession of the Sacred Hearts Fathers.

A friend, Señora Sara Vives Pomar, readily paid for the rich frame which the young priest selected. The picture was then installed in the place of honor in the new law building, where it remained until the now-famous earthquake. It stayed in Valparaiso in the custody of the Sacred Hearts Fathers until recent years; then it was returned to its native land where it is preserved in a magnificent shrine in Quito, the capital city.

Today reproductions of this picture are to be found in all parts of the world, thanks to Father Mateo. In recent years he was astonished to find this picture, or beautiful statues modeled after it, wherever he preached, in the Orient, in Europe, and in the United States. One particularly striking copy in oils, made for Father Mateo from the original by an eminent Ecuadorian artist, hangs in the lobby of McMahon Hall at the Catholic University of America. It was used on the occasion of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart at the university in 1953, brought about through the zeal of a former lieutenant colonel in the US Marine Corps.

Again we see the mysterious workings of Divine Providence. It took a murder and a revolution to get the Garcia Moreno picture spread all over the world. And some 75 years later, after it had done its work, the painting was returned to its starting point to be honored in a national monument.

Father Mateo Goes Abroad

We left Father Mateo standing in the midst of the ruins of the school of law, in 1906. But we can be sure this energetic priest lost little time in bemoaning the misfortune that had befallen his favorite project. There was too much to do. Injured and homeless victims had to be taken care of, housed and fed.

Because Father Mateo’s father had been a banker, Valparaiso bankers, particularly the members of the English colony, asked him to take care of the distribution of relief funds. This he began to do with his usual drive and energy. But his health, always rather precarious, finally failed him. His doctors ordered him to stop all activities and, hoping that an ocean voyage would help him, they advised that he take a trip to Europe. His superiors decided to follow this advice.

Consequently, he set sail from South America in March, 1907. For Father Mateo, this trip was to be more than a health voyage. In it he saw the opportunity to realize the dream of a lifetime: To make a pilgrimage to the shrine at Paray-le-Monial in France, where the Sacred Heart appeared to St. Margaret Mary.

After a visit to his superior general in Belgium, and possibly to Paray, he made his way to Rome, where providentially he met Cardinal Vives, who at one time had been a Capuchin cleric in California. To this prince of the Church, no stranger to the Crawley-Boevey family, he submitted his project and a rough outline of a proposed ceremonial for the Enthronement. The cardinal was enthusiastic and urged Father Mateo to submit the plan to His Holiness. “It is a magnificent work! You must consecrate your life to it!”

A Saint Issues a Command

 

Greatly encouraged by the hearty approval of the cardinal and with his help, the young priest asked for and was granted an audience with the reigning pontiff, Pius X. To the future saint he explained his project of working to establish the social reign of the Sacred Heart by first winning the family home for the King of Love. He asked the Holy Father to bless the project and to grant him permission to preach it everywhere.

What a surprise to hear the answer: “No, my son!” Looking up, Father Mateo reiterated his request. Again came the answer: “No, my son… you ask permission, and I say ‘No.’ Not only do I permit you, but I command you to give your life for this work of social salvation.”

These words sounded like a command from heaven to Father Mateo. Leaving Rome, he went to Paray-le-Monial. There, in the sanctuary of apparitions, as he was giving thanks for the great grace he had received, imploring light and guidance and begging for the health necessary to carry out his mission, he suddenly felt his whole being strangely moved. When he arose, he found himself restored to perfect health. At the same time, he received an extraordinary grace. By a sudden illumination of his mind, he saw clearly the methodic plan of the work he was to do for the spiritual regeneration of families. “I understood what our Lord desired of me. That same evening, I resolved upon a plan to conquer the whole world for the love of the Heart of Jesus – home after home, family after family.”

He understood that the devotion to the Sacred Heart, hitherto limited for the most part to churches and chapels, was to be brought into the family circle; that the family was to carry out all our Lord’s requests in the home itself in order to benefit by His marvelous promises. On his knees that very night, August 24, 1907, Father Mateo revised the plan and ceremonial of his crusade for the Enthronement, as we have it today. Soon after, and with an encouraging blessing from his superior general, he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land from September 5 to October 15. Long hours were spent at Nazareth and Bethany, meditating on the wonderful lessons of Our Lord’s love for family life.

Father Mateo Obeys

 

Returning to Valparaiso via the United States, where he preached in a Spanish church in New York City, Father Mateo resumed his teaching. At the same time he inaugurated his crusade for the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the home. Families were prepared by zealous laymen.

Accompanied by the parish priest, Father Mateo would go from home to home enthroning the Sacred Heart in the place of honor. The results were startling. Fallen-away Catholics returned to the sacraments; great sinners, including enemies of the Church and high-ranking Freemasons, were converted. The spiritual life of the entire parish was changed. It was a veritable Pentecost.

One bishop wrote that he had witnessed not the resurrection of one man, “but of an entire cemetery!” As the crusade of love spread from place to place, always with the same supernatural results, it became quite evident that this was indeed the work of the Sacred Heart, not of men.

Therefore, in April 1913, the bishops of Chile decided the time had come to request indulgences for the ceremony of the Enthronement. The petition was quickly granted on July 24, 1913, by St. Pius X, and the indulgences were made applicable to all families of Chile that enthroned the Sacred Heart in their homes. Later, in 1915, these indulgences were extended to the entire world by Pope Benedict XV. 

Spreading the Message to the World

Father Mateo was not satisfied to limit his crusade to South America. The entire world had to be won for the Sacred Heart. Therefore he set about making known his work, and the results obtained to bishops and superiors of religious orders throughout the world. This was a tremendous task and one that would require a great many willing hands to copy letters which were to be sent far and wide.

Where did the young priest go to find these “secretaries”? Not to the seminary or the convent, or to young businesswomen, but rather to a group of young children! Yes, with the “foolishness” that confounds the wise, he gathered together a small group of youngsters to whom he explained his project – they were going to be his secretaries – he would give them letters in various languages which they would copy – an arduous task for children who didn’t even understand the meaning of the words they were writing.

They had been well prepared for this task, for Father Mateo had given them a private retreat in which he had explained how he was depending more on their prayers and sacrifices than on the letters to make this letter-writing campaign a success.

One little girl asked her mother for permission to stay up one night to write her letters. And as an extra sacrifice, she wrote them kneeling. She offered this to the Sacred Heart for the conversion of her father.

Such a thoroughly supernatural way of spreading the work was bound to be a success. Letters came back from archbishops and bishops, and superiors of religious communities in all parts of the world. The archbishop of Tokyo wrote telling of his heart approval and announcing that the work was already under way in Japan.

In the archives of the Sacred Hearts Fathers in Fairhaven, MA is a letter written in French, dated 1913 addressed to the superior of the monastery. It was written by one of the child secretaries and was signed by Fr Mateo. It told of the supernatural origin of this work and the blessings that followed wherever it was begun. The superior was urged to begin the Enthronement in the United States. He did. Thus the crusade had its inception in this country, thanks to a little child in South America.

War

The year 1914 was momentous for Europe and the entire world. The effects of two events of that year were still being felt. You will read about one of them in the history books; the other is recorded in Heaven.

In 1914 World War I broke out. It was also the year Father Mateo carried his crusade to Europe. As a result of his unique letter campaign, invitations had been coming in from all parts of the world, especially from members of his own community. He was being urged to come to Europe to make known the Enthronement to the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts.

Accordingly, it was decided to send Father to Europe to preach in the institutions of the order for a relatively short time, after which he was to return to South America. When he failed to return to South America at the end of the year, Fr Mateo says, he received a letter from his saintly mother in which she demanded to know “if they had forgotten how to count in Europe.” Eight months had passed, and still her son had not returned.

The Enthronement founder was on the high seas when news was received that war had broken out on August 1, 1914. On reaching Paris, Fr Mateo was advised to postpone his preaching until more peaceful times. His answer was typical: “Did Noe build the ark after the deluge?” But his stay in Paris was short. The Germans were already sending zeppelins over the city. The priest was obliged to leave. Thereupon he decided to return to Paray-le-Monial, the cradle of his work.

Here he preached his first sermon, in halting French. And here too, he received his first serious setback. It seems the priest who had invited Fr Mateo to preach was so enthusiastic about the Enthronement that he printed the sermon in a bulletin. I fell into the hands of the bishop, a former chaplain of the Visitation Convent and one who enjoyed a considerable reputation as an authority on all that concerned the revelations.

What was the surprise for the two priests when a letter arrived from the bishop ordering the South American priest to desist preaching this novel doctrine which was nowhere to be found in the writings of St Margaret Mary! If he persisted, drastic steps would be taken. This was enough to put anyone’s faith to the test. But Fr Mateo knew that if the Sacred Heart permitted this to happen in the very place where He had inspired him to begin his crusade, there was a purpose behind it, and it would all work out for the best – and it did!

A Famous Letter

About this time, St Pius X died. Anxious to obtain the approval of his successor, Pope Benedict XV, Fr Mateo went to Rome where he was invited to stay in the South American seminary, directed by the Jesuits. He was told he might have to wait a long time for an audience… Rome was slow.

To the surprise of everyone the audience came quickly, and soon after Fr Mateo was the happy possessor of an autographed letter from His Holiness heartily endorsing the Enthronement crusade and encouraging him to continue his efforts “to enkindle in Catholic homes the flames of love for the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.” In this remarkable document the Holy Father made this stronf affirmation: “Nothing, as a matter of fact, is more suitable to the needs of the present day than your enterprise.”

To our Beloved Son Mateo Crawley-Boevey,

Priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,

Beloved Son, Health and Apostolic Benediction.

We have read your letter with interest and likewise the documents that accompanied it. Form them We have learned of the diligence and zeal with which form many years you have devoted yourself to the work of consecrating families to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, in such a way that while His image is installed in the principal place in the home as on a throne, our Divine Savior Jesus Christ is seen to reign at each Catholic hearth.

… Nothing, as a matter of fact, is more suitable to the needs of the present day than your enterprise. To pervert, both in private and in public life, the concept of morality engendered and fostered by the Church, and after having almost effaced the last vestige of Christian wisdom and decency, to lead human society back to the miserable institutions of paganism, such is the plan which too many are trying to realize today. Would that their efforts were fruitless! Moreover, the attacks of the wicked are directed primarily against the family. For, containing within itself as it does the principles and, as it were, the germ of all human society, they clearly see that the change, or rather the corruption, which they are trying to bring about in human society, will necessarily follow, once the corruption of the corruption of the family itself has been accomplished. Hence divorce laws are introduced to put an end to the stability of marriage; children are forced to follow an officials teaching for the most part estranged from religion, thus eliminating the authority of parents in a matter of the highest importance; moreover, countenance is given to the spread of a shameful course of selfish indulgence which contravenes the laws of nature, and striking a blow at the human race at its very source, stains the sanctity of marriage with impure practices.

You do well then, dear son, while taking up the cause of human society, to arouse and propagate above all things a Christian spirit in the home by setting up in each family the reign of the love of Jesus Christ. And in doing this you are but obeying our Divine Lord Himself, Who promised to shower His blessings upon the homes wherein an image of His Sacred Heart should be exposed and devoutly honored.

…  For Our part, in order to encourage the piety of the faithful in this matter, we extend to all families of the Catholic world that consecrate themselves to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, all those spiritual favors which Our predecessor, Pius X, of happy memory, granted with Pontifical liberality in 1913 at the instance of the bishops of Chile to the families of that republic consecrated to the Sacred Heart.

As a pledge of divine favors and as a mark of Our paternal good will, We impart to you affectionately, beloved son, the Apostolic Blessing.

Given at St Peter’s, Rome, this 27th day of April, 1915, in the first year of Our Pontificate.

 Benedict PP. XV

As though this approbation of the highest authority of the Church were not enough, another encouragement and endorsement came from a foremost Jesuit theologian, the famous Cardinal Billot. The learned cardinal, who evidently had heard of Fr Mateo’s setback at Paray, masterfully refuted the argument that the Enthronement was a “novelty” and not to be found in the writings of St Margaret Mary, by stating the contrary:

 

Far then, from seeing in the work anything which could even in a dream resemble a dangerous novelty, I see in it, on the contrary, all that is likely to arouse in the highest degree the zeal of such souls as are permeated with the love Our Lord.

I see in it, to begin with, a simple and practical method of realizing the desires expressed to St Margaret Mary that His Heart should be the object of a special worship. Who amongst us but recalls the two promises that He made to His servant: ‘I will give peace to their families. I will bless the houses wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and honored.’ This is the origin of the ceremony which you set as a headline in your program; and I have no doubt that you also drew it from the example of that first feast spontaneously organized in private by the novices of Paray-le-Monial on July 20, 1685, in Honor of the Sacred Heart. One may read in the life of St Margaret Mary, the description of this the first Enthronement carried out (behind) closed doors in the part of the convent reserved for the novitiate. One should above all read the expression of joy that inundated the soul of St Margaret Mary on that occasion. Had she at that time a presentiment that in this small grain of mustard seed was the great tree beneath whose branches for more than two centuries the birds of Heaven have found shelter? I do not know. But what I do know is this: That if the book of the future had been opened to her at the page entitled The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the Home, she would have recognized in it the expansion of the act so delicately outlined by her little novices. She would have seen in it nothing less than the accomplishment of the august desire of which she had been made the confidential recipient.”

In the above passage the cardinal is referring to an incident in the life of St Margaret Mary, when she was mistress of novices. On the occasion of her name-day, the Feast of St Margaret, she suggested to her novices that instead of honoring her, they honor the Sacred Heart. Accordingly, an altar was prepared in the novitiate, beautifully decorated with flowers. On it was enthroned a picture of the Sacred Heart, drawn by St Margaret Mary herself. Kneeling before the image of the Sacred Heart, she led her novices in an act of consecration which she herself had composed. This is exactly what takes place in the Enthronement ceremony, as the cardinal points out.

When Fr Mateo returned to France, he received a letter from the bishop who had refused him permission to preach the Enthronement. This time, with the humility which is characteristic of great men, the prelate told Fr Mateo that he had been misinformed about the nature of his work and ended b inviting him to his diocese with open arms.

Whirlwind Tour

 

Sometimes we are amazed at the whirlwind speaking tours of candidates for the presidency of the United States. But these are insignificant compared with the campaign carried on for the Sacred Heart by Fr Mateo. With incredible zeal and unflagging energy, his preached the length and breadth of Europe, as many as eight times a day. And this continued year after year with brief periods of rest, usually spent in making personal retreats or preparing sermons and articles. At a time when there were no public-address systems he preached in Europe’s greatest cathedrals and churches to enormous crowds held spellbound by his eloquence, simplicity, and souls-stirring conviction.

At the same time he carried on an ever-increasing correspondence that went to all parts of the world, founded numerous secretariats to carry on the work, and with it all, managed to make a nightly holy Hour despite great fatigue.

During these hectic years, Fr Mateo’s health was far from good. For a long time he suffered from severe attacks of gout that forced him to hobble about on crutches. Once he was carried to the pulpit by two men, and he preached his sermon kneeling.

Whenever he preached, remarkable results followed. Many hardened sinners returned to the sacraments; family life and Eucharistic devotion in parishes were transformed; the spiritual life of the clergy and religious were intensified through the countless retreats conducted by the “preacher of sanctity.”

The Enthronement in Spain

 

Fr Mateo is credited with having helped save Spain from communism. If this is true, the world owes him a great debt of gratitude, for if Spain had fallen to the Communists, today probably all of Europe (and perhaps South America) would be enslaved by the atheistic communists.

In no country of Europe did Fr Mateo have greater success than in the great Catholic country of Spain, so hated by its enemies, so little understood even by Catholics.

As a result of his many visits to Spain, countless families enthroned the Sacred Heart as their King. Moreover, public Enthronement took place in towns, villages, and cities. This remarkable outward and social acknowledgement of the sovereign dominion of the King of Kings culminated in the solemn Enthronement of the Sacred Heart as King of Spain, on May 30, 1919.

It was Fr Mateo who first proposed the idea which was received with universal enthusiasm. Appeals for funds were made to the Spanish people, and the donations were handled by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts. The statue was donated by the ambassador from Peru. Together with the base it was 91 feet high. The shrine required 882 tons of quarried stone.

The cornerstone was lid on July 1, 1916, at the Cerro de los Angeles, a hill that is very close to the capital and the geographical center of Spain.

After a solemn triduum preached by Fr Mateo in the Royal Church of St Jerome, the Enthronement took place on May 30, the Feast of King St Ferdinand. The official act of consecration of Spain to the Sacred Heart, composed by Fr Mateo, was read by King Alfonso XIII. Among those present were the apostolic nuncio, the primate of Spain, some twenty bishops, the queen of Spain, and all the civil officials of the Spanish government, headed by the prime minister, Dom Antonio Maura. The ceremony concluded with solemn Benediction of the most Blessed Sacrament.

“Executing” the Sacred Heart

 

In 1936, a picture appeared in the press in the United States, which graphically symbolized what was going on in Spain. I showed a firing squad composed of communists, with rifles pointing at the statue of the Sacred Heart at Cerro de los Angeles. They were “executing” the King of Love. Following this sacrilegious act they dynamited the huge monument, which became a heap of ruins. We owe the picture to someone in the crowd watching, who secretly snapped the photograph that recorded the diabolic hatred of the enemies of Christ.

The Sacred Heart protected His beloved Spain, and communism suffered its first major defeat. Pope Pius XII acknowledged this fact when, on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the Apostleship of Prayer in Spain, he broadcast to the Spanish nation an address in which he attributed Spain’s defeat of communism to its loyalty as a nation, to the Sacred Heart. He explicitly referred to the Enthronement of 1919 and said that because Spain had publicly acknowledged Christ before men, He had visibly protected Spain form its enemies.

Today another national monument has replaced the original, and in 1952 the chief state, Generalissimo Francisco Franco, during the International Eucharistic Congress at Barcelona, renewed Spain’s consecration to the Sacred Heart. In 1954, as a climax of a Marian Year rally, Spain’s outstanding Catholic statesman consecrated his nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

From Portugal to Canada

The apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal are today as familiar to Catholics as those of Lourdes. That they have had a profound influence on the lives of the Portuguese people goes without saying. Little however, is known the work accomplished by the apostle of the Sacred Heart I helping to carry out Our Lady’s message.

 

Fifteen months were spent preaching the reign of the Sacred Heart in Portugal, in 1927-28 and in 1931. Retreats were given to the bishops, priests and sisters, with talks to the laity, form one end of the country to another. Accompanying Fr. Mateo on many of his preaching tours was the saintly Fr. Cruz, one of the first priests to question the three seers of Fatima and to accept the authenticity of the revelations. On a visit to the United States some years ago, Cardinal Cerejeria publicly paid tribute to the profound influence of Fr. Mateo’s preaching on the spiritual life of Portugal.

 

It is safe to say then, that Portugal owes a great debt of gratitude to the zealous founder of the Enthronement who preached Our Lady’s message prayer and penance long before the message was known to the rest of the world

Missionary to the Missionaries

 

It would be impossible to give a detailed account of the seemingly endless whirlwind campaigns of the apostle of the Sacred Heart from 1914 to 1935. In 1920 he preached in six countries: Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Italy, England, and Spain. During these years he became the trusted friend of popes, cardinals, bishops and statesmen, often consulted in important matters and sometimes entrusted with delicate negotiations. Someday the whole story can be told, and it will be interesting reading. There is scarcely a prominent European figure of that period of whom Fr. Mateo could not refer to as “… my intimate friend.” 

In 1935 began what was to be for him “one of the greatest graces of my long career,” namely, five years of preaching retreats to the missionaries and native clergy of the Far East.

 

Upon the invitation of 12 vicars apostolic of the Orient, and with the personal sanction and blessing of Pius XI, which he received in private audience on October 19, 1934, he sailed for Japan to begin this new crusade. Before he was forced to discontinue because of the Chinese-Japanese War, hed had preached hundreds of retreats in five languages, in Japan, Korea, Manchoukuo, China, Indo-China, the Philippines, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Goa, and Macoa, the British East Indies, and in Hawaii. Many of these retreats, especially to the native clergy, were given in Latin, besides Spanish (his native tongue), French, Italian, English, and Portuguese.

 

A remarkable feature of this unusual apostolic mission was that Fr. Mateo never missed a retreat because of illness. Yet on occasions, in fever-infected missions, he found himself the only one among the retreatants not suffering from tropical fever. There is no doubt the Sacred Heart was keeping His promises “to bless all the undertakings” of those who devote themselves to preaching His message of merciful love.

United States at Last

 

The Chinese-Japanese war, followed by World War II, brought an abrupt end to Fr. Mateo’s preaching in the Orient, but it also brought him providentially to the United States. His arrival was the answer to the prayers of many of his friends and admirers who for long years had been following him from afar, hoping for his coming to this country. 

Fr. Mateo said a pleasant surprise awaited him in the famous United States, about whose Catholics he shared the prejudices of so many foreigners. He said frankly that he believed what he had been told, that Americans were too interested in material things to listen to a spiritual message about sanctity, generosity, and love for the Sacred Heart.

 

“But I was greatly deceived! In all my travels I have never met a more docile or more generous race than the American! I regret I did not come here years ago.” This was the frank avowal he later made.

 

He had reason for being astonished at the generosity of the Americans, for the response to his appeal for Night Adoration in the home met with a greater response here than in any other country of the world.

 

From the time of his arrival in California in October 1940, until his departure for Canada in July, 1944, he was kept busy preaching to the clergy and laity throughout the country. Those fortunate enough to have heard him speak, talked about his fiery conferences long after they had been given. Yet during his four years in the United States he suffered greatly from diabetes, sometimes being so weak that he could hardly begin the opening conferences of his retreats.

 

One of the highlights of his stay in the United States was the solemn consecration of the Chicago archdiocese to the Sacred Heart before a crowd of over 125,000 in Soldier’s Field in 1943 by Cardinal Stritch. The idea had been suggested by the Enthronement Apostle.

 

Before he left the United States he established secretariats to continue his work in various parts of the country. In California alone he founded secretariats in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento.

Canada - End of the Trail

 

For years invitations to preach in Canada had reached the world missionary. At last, in 1944 he left the US to begin what was to prove his last apostolic tour.

 

The very day of his arrival in Kitchener, Ontario, he began his first retreat to the Resurrection Fathers. Before he was forced into a hospital, two years later, he had given some 80 retreats, almost without interruption. His last conference was to a large crowd of men in the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception in Montreal. Shortly after, he was asked by the Sacred Heart to make a big sacrifice: enter the Hotel-Dieu Hospital in Montreal. He stayed there for some months until he was transferred to St. Joseph’s Hospital, conducted by the Sisters of Providence, in Three Rivers, between Montreal and Quebec.

 

The old priest thought surely he was to end his days in what he called his “Cloister of the Divine Will,” in which he revealed a life-long ambition, that of  being a contemplative like a Trappist. As a matter of fact, severe heart attacks almost put an end to his career several times. Yet he survived them all.

 

Taking advantage of a privilege granted to him years before by Pius XI, that of offering Holy Mass seated, he was able to enjoy the consolation of daily Mass except when he was too weak event to sit at the altar.

 

In 1948 he celebrated his golden jubilee of priesthood in the hospital room, and on that occasion had the happiness of receiving an autographed letter from His Holiness Pope Pius XII. In this letter the Holy Father who as secretary of state had known Fr. Mateo, congratulated him on his fifty years of priesthood, and renewed the approval of his predecessors for the Enthronement crusade. He wrote: “There is one thing We desire in a special way… that Christian families consecrate themselves to the Sacred Heart in such a way that, His image being installed in the place of honor in the home as on a throne, Christ the Lord is seen to reign truly within the Catholic family.”

 

The same year this indefatigable priest launched a world-wide campaign to have the Feast of the Sacred Heart celebrated everywhere as a great act of reparation, to bring down an avalanche of graces on a sick world. Letters went out to cardinals, archbishops, bishops, vicars apostolic, and superiors of religious communities in all parts of the world. He had the consolation of seeing a world-wide celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart for which he had campaigned so ardently through the years.

 

His little hospital room had indeed become a “powerhouse” of apostolic activity. Letters, articles, and even a book came from his prolific pen. Bishops and priests came to consult him. He was called upon to convert hardened sinners, his fellow-patients in the hospital.

 

He had said, "When I am no longer able to preach, I will write. When I am no longer able to write, I will pray. When I am no longer able to pray, I can always love in suffering and suffer in loving."

 

Finally, in 1952 his superiors decided that he needed the care of nursing brothers. Accordingly he was transferred to Notre Dame de la Merci Hospital in Montreal, conducted by the Brothers of St John of God. Here he continued his zealous activities, except when prevented by his weakened condition. In February of 1956 he was flown to Valparaiso, from which he had departed in 1914.

 

Stricken with leukemia, he was forced to undergo the amputation of a gangrenous leg. The morning of May 4, 1960, the artery in his amputated leg ruptured. Succumbing to the hemorrhage, Father Mateo peacefully fell asleep in the Lord after having received Extreme Unction.

 

Surely, after so many active years spent in the service of the Sacred Heart, a great reward awaited him in Heaven, where he would find complete fulfillment of his life-long ambition “to love Him and make Him better known and loved!”