Excerpt: Deo Gratias!
How the South African poet saved the letters of Our Holy Father St. John from being destroyed in the Spanish Civil War.
It was March 1936. A series of anti-clerical riots swept through Toledo. Churches were burned and priests and monks were attacked in the streets. During these disturbances several Carmelite monks, disguised in lay clothes, sought shelter in the home of the South African poet, Roy Campbell, who had moved to the city with his wife, Mary, and their two young daughters in the previous year. Four months later, on July 21, republican forces advanced on the city. Under cover of darkness, the Carmelite monks once again called on the Campbells. This time, however, they were not seeking refuge for themselves but for their priceless archives, which included the personal papers of St John of the Cross. Campbell agreed to take possession of these precious archives and that night a heavy trunk of ancient documents was delivered secretly from the Carmelite library to the hallway of the Campbells’ house......
As
for the story of the man who saved the original letters of St
John of the Cross, it could be said that Spain
and the Catholic Church are indebted to him for his role in preserving a
priceless part of their inheritance. As for Campbell,
he was equally indebted to Spain,
describing it as “a country to which I owe everything, as having saved my
soul”....
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