Reverend Edward Douglas was born on 1 December
1819. He was the son of Edward
Bullock Douglas and Harriet Bullock. He died on 23 March 1898 at
age 78. He was a Roman Catholic priest.
Edinburgh-born Edward Douglas, a wealthy Catholic convert, was kin to
the Marquess of Queensberry, one of Scotland’s foremost families.
Douglas had been brought up Protestant and the story of his conversion,
as recorded in the “Tablet” newspaper archives, hinges on a chance
incident involving a forgotten umbrella. The seeds had been sown while
he was a student at Oxford. He was one of the so-called “Oxford Group”
of students who were strongly influenced by the traditionalist theories
of the theologist and philosopher John Henry Newman and who were
subsequently to convert to Catholicism. Douglas’ own conversion,
however, took place a few years later when he came to Rome. According to
the story, he forgot his umbrella in a confessional in St. Peter’s where
he was attended a papal ceremony and had to knock up the Carmelite
brothers in order to retrieve it. The actual conversation has not been
recorded but it must have been extraordinarily illuminating, because he
switched from the Anglican to the Roman faith and was subsequently
ordained a priest, electing to join the Redemptorists, a missionary
order founded near Amalfi by St.Alphonsus Maria dè Liguori a century
earlier.
Fired with religious fervor and blessed with considerable organizational
talents and plenty of disposable income, Father Douglas rose fast within
the Order. In 1853 he got the task of setting up a General House in
Rome. The Caetani palace, on what was then the quiet and leafy Esquiline
hill, exactly suited his purpose and he purchased it with his own money
for 45,000 scudi. He was to remain there as rector for the next forty
years.
His first task was to build a church next to the General House,
dedicated to the Redemptorists’ founder. The choice of architect fell on
a fellow Scot (or maybe Irishman or Englishman) George Jonas Wigley,
whose only other completed architectural work seems to be the modest St.
Mary’s Woolhampton at Reading, Berkshire. Wigley, in fact, had a more
distinguished career as a writer and journalist. He founded the Catholic
newspaper, “The Universe” and was one of the founders of the Society of
Saint Vincent de Paul, a volunteer organization under the wing of the
Fathers Redeemers. Among the honours he received was a knighthood
bestowed by Pope Pius IX.
Wigley designed the Redemptorist church in the preferred fashion of the
Victorian age, which did not meet the taste of the Romans, accustomed to
the classical and baroque. A noted critic of the period, in fact, said
it was more “ostrogothic than gothic” and disparagingly dubbed it the “Troubador
Style, in vogue in England”. The Fathers Redeemers, however, were
convinced the church was blessed, because workers found a gold coin
bearing an effigy of the Redeemer while digging the foundations.
Sant’Alfonso was also favoured by the benevolence of the Pope Pius IX,
who decided to give it the 15thcentury sacred icon of Our Lady of
Perpetual Succour, which was held to have miraculous powers. It was
purchased (or stolen, stories vary) in Crete by an Italian merchant and
brought to Rome. On his deathbed, he instructed that it be carried to
the Church of St. Matthew on Via Merulana so that it could be venerated
by the faithful. During the procession, a paralytic girl regained the
use of her legs and the sacred image became celebrated, attracting
pilgrims from far and wide. One of the most assiduous of the devotees
was the deposed Stuart monarch of Great Britain, James III or VIII, in
exile in Rome.
When the French troops invaded, the monks from the neighbouring
monastery hid the icon and it was forgotten for many years. When finally
it finally came to light, the Pope thought it would be appropriate to
return it to its original site, now occupied by the new Redemptorist
church.
The icon is Byzantine in style, with brilliant colours on a gold
background. However, the artist has introduced his own personal
interpretation of the standard conventional image of the Virgin and
Child. The baby clasps his mother’s thumb tightly between his little
hands, as if seeking protection and reassurance, and, to add to the
human touch, one of his sandals has fallen off and dangles from his
foot.
The icon is revered in several countries, including Poland, the Czech
Republic, Slovakia and parts of Russia. The Madonna of Perpetual Succour
is also the patron saint of Haiti, where she is known as “the Virgin of
the Miracle” and was evoked (alas, not too successfully) by Pope
Benedict XVI during the 2010 earthquake disaster.
The intervention of the miraculous icon was more successful during the
Italian Risorgimento. In 1870, when Rome fell to Garibaldi’s troops,
Father Douglas put up a valiant struggle to save Villa Caserta from
confiscation. He declared it was his personal property and sent his
title deeds to the British Ambassador, claiming diplomatic immunity. To
reinforce his point, he hoisted the Union Jack from the roof. In the
end, he was saved by the new King Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, who lent an
ear to his pleas - perhaps with the help of a whisper from the
Miraculous Virgin.
On March 23, 1898, Fr. Douglas died of the flu at the age of 78 and was
buried in the crypt of the Casa S Alfonso house chapel along aside the
Superiors General. |
