RETREAT
795
RETREATS
ried" betray the influence of Cornelius. The de-
velopment of his sense of colour and expressive dra-
matic spirit belong to his period of attachment to Veit
(1836). The "Reconciliation of Emperor Otto I
with his brother Henry" and "The Monk at the
Coffin of Henry IV" are important works. In the
"Nemesis pursuing a Murderer"
is already crystallized the darker
mood, which clouded the later
life of the painter. For the
Kaisersaal in Frankfort he
painted four characteristic pic-
tures of monarchs. With great
admiration he studied the glow-
ing colouring of Titian in strong
contrast to the pale art of the
Nazarene. After this many-sided
training follow his ripest works:
"Hannibal's March" powerfully
depicts in six pictures the cross-
ing of the Alps; in the "Frescoes
from the Life of Charlemagne",
in the Rathaus at Aachen (see
illustration in Charlemagne),
the composition and colouring
are both restrained and effec-
tive; his assistant Kehren com-
pleted the series with four greatly
inferior pictures; the "Death
Dance" depicts the horror of
the Revolution of 1848. His
superhuman strivings after the ideal were little appre-
ciated by his townsmen and contemporaries. A soft-
ening of the brain afflicted him during his last years.
Veit, Alfred Rethel, eine charakteristik (Weimar. 1892); ScHMlD, Reihd (Bielefeld. 189S).
G. GlETMANN.
Alfred Rethel
Portrait Study in oila, the Museum, Aachen
Christian
Retreat, Congregation
Christian Retreat,
Congregation of.
Retreat, Houses OF Correctional. See Prisons, Eccle- siastical.
Retreat of the Sacred Heart, Con- gregation OF THE (Dames de la Re- traite) . — Originally founded in 1678 un- der the name of the Institute of Retreat, at Quimper, in Brit- tany, by Mademoi- selle Claude-Therese de Kermeno under the direction of the Jesuit Father Huby. The holy foundress having made a retreat in a convent which accommo- dated ladies who desired to retire from the world and follow the exercises of St. Ignatius, conceived the idea of founding a similar convent at Quimper. Later the sisters took the name of the Dames de la retraite. During the French Revolution they were dispersed for refusing to take the oath of allegiance. On 17 July, 1794, one of their number. Mademoiselle Vic- toire de St-Luc, suffered martyrdom for her devo- tion to the Sacred Heart by the guillotine. Her glorious death caused the institute to flourish, the members consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart, and in 180.5 began again the work of providing re- treats for seculars, interrupted in 1791. The re- ligious and administrative authorities in France then required the si.sters to add the education of youth to their other work, and they now have large schools
in various places in England, France, and Belgium.
In 1820 two sisters from Quimper opened a house at
Redon (Ille-et-Vilaine), which eventually became the
cradle of the Retreat of Angers. Meantime the
mother-house at Quimper in 1808 opened a house at
Quimperle; in 1S20 one at Lesneven (Finistere);
in 1847 one at Pontchateau
(Loire-Inferieure), and in 1858
one at Brest (Finistere). The fol-
lowing convents were foimded by
the Retreat of Angers: in 1820,
Redon; in 1844, Saumur (Maine-
et- Loire); in 18.57, a second
house at Angers called I'Oratoire,
and in 1893 one at Fontenay-
sous-Bois (Seine). In 1880 the
sisters went to England and the
flourishing convent at Clapham
Park was founded from Angers.
In 1882 a convent was opened at
Burnham, in Somersetshire, from
Quimper, and after the union
of Quimper and Angers (1897),
another convent was opened at
\\'eston-super-Mare, Somerset,
and in 1904, one at Clevedon.
In 1898 a house at Mentone was
opened, and in 1899 a large
educational establi-shment at
Brussels. The institute and its
constitutions were approved
definitively by the Holy See in 1910.
Francesca M. Steele.
Retreats. — If we call a retreat a series of days passed in sohtude and consecrated to practices of asceticism, in particular to prayer and penance, it is as old as Christianity. \Yithout referring to the cus- toms of the Prophets of the Old Testament, the forty days which Jesus Christ passed in the desert after His baptism is an ex- ample which has found many imita- tors in all ages of the Church. From this imitation sprang the eremitical life and the institution of the cenobites. The reli- gious who sought the sohtude of the des- erts or the monas- teries, or in general those wishing to lead a contemplative life withdrew from the world, in order the more readily to draw nearer to God and apply them- selves to exercises of Christian perfection. The "Forma cleri" of Tronson, t. IV, gives numerous texts of the Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, rec- ommending a retreat for at least a few days. Ac- cording to St. Francis de Sales (Treatise on the Love of God, XII, chap, vii), the practice of the retreat was specially restored by St. Ignatius Loyola. We may say indeed that in his "Spiritual E.xercises" St. Ignatius has combined the methods of reforming one's life and seeking the will of God in solitude. The Society of Jesus was the first active religious order in which the practice of the retreat became obligatory by rule. St. Francis of Assisi and his first com- liiiuioiis occasionally retired to hermitages where they ga\'e themselves up to prayer and mortification. St. Ignatius prescribed for his religious the exercises of
