Page 208 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

HIS LAST DAYS r87
to introduce "The Guard." As a promoter it was his
task to recruit baads of thirty-three-in honor of the
years Our Lord lived en sn11h-1^/ho pledged themselves
to spend each day an hour spiritually in the presence of
the Blessed Sacrament.
In addition to this work, Brother Francis became ac-
tive in "The Union of Prayers for the Holy Father."
The entry of Victor Emmanuel into Venice on Novem-
ber 7, 1866, his reward for joining Prussia against Aus-
tria, meant the eventual loss of the Papal States. It was
the hope of the members of "The Union" that their
continuous novena of prayers and communions would
save the realm of Pius IX, the Pope-King, and they had
a moment of triumph on November 3, 1867, when the
Papal Zouaves, recruited from all Christendom, routed
Garibaldi and his insurgents ar Mentana.
Their joy was short-lived. On July lg, 1870, France
declared war on Prussia. The French garrison, assigned
to Rome, after the defeat of Garibaldi at Mentana, was
withdrawn. On September twentieth, Victor Emmanuel's
troops entered Rome. Once they breached the walls,
Pope Pius forbade any further resistance. When the
drive for a United Italy revealed itself as an anti-Catholic
revolution, the Catholic world protested vigorously but
vainly. Brother Francis, unusual in his deep-seated devo-
tion to the Vicar of Christ, was crushed. At seventy-three
he was not as demonstrative as he would have been some
years earlier.
In mid-November, 1871, Brother Francis asked to be
excused from the community spiritual exercises. He had
not been feeling well. For the next fortnight he kept to
his room. As a precautionary measure the infirmarian
asked the community doctor to look in on the patient.
Altogether unexpectedly, the medical man advised that
the last rites be administered. It was his opinion that