HYACINTH, BROTHER (Bernard Spitzer -- Died April 25, 1914)
(Hyacinth -- Sorin) (Provincial; 1883) "I also tell you, Very Reverend Father General, that they may put me at any old thing, i.e. 'To work at the college', as I am not very fond of changes. I prefer to stay with my pots, spittoons, etc. in order that I may have an opportunity to do some penance for my many sins and iniquities. I am at it now for nineteen years, and a year with the hod or masons; from bookkeeping clerk to a mason's clerk. Since then with pots and all their consequences, which often take a hero to do them up snug and clean as they ought to be. I know it is a degrading job, but Our Lord said, 'He that humbles himself shall be exalted, that exalts himself shall be humbled'. I prefer now in this Vale of Tears to be humbled, and that is one of the reasons, I suppose, that Almighty God has sent me this heavy cross (deafness) on earth. Well, I thank Him, and kiss his fatherly and loving hands as a token of my gratitude for the infinite goodness and mercy by which he leads me through the Way of the Cross to find one day my reward in heaven. 'Here cut, here burn, only spare me for an eternity'. We can not expect two heavens; we must either miss the one on earth or else the one to come in eternity." LETTER OF BROTHER HYACINTH TO SORIN, 1883