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240 F. X. MARTIN 10. - Archangel Leslie and Epiphanius Lindsay Archangel Leslie's fame was posthumous, and grew from an uncritical biography written by Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, arch– bishop of Fermo, and later papal nuncio to Ireland 127 • The historical dispute about the true facts of Leslie's life does not concern us here. A critical investigation has shown that there is sufficient of the unusual in his life to make him a memorable figure for Scottish Catholics 1 28 • Though a historiographical dispute may have made Archangel Leslie the best known of the Scottish Capuchins, the palm for heroic unobtrusive labour must be given to Epiphanius Lindsay. This is not the place to give any detailed account of his activities 129 • He was of noble family, educated as a secular priest by the Jesuits at Louvain. His first taste of missionary life in Scotland ended in capture and a condemnation to death which was commuted to exile. He entered the Capuchin order in the Low Countries, and joined the English– speaking friars at Cologne about 1611. It was Nugent who sent him back to Scotland in 1620 130 • The rector of the Scots College at Douai apparently had Epiphanius in mind when he wrote to the nuncio at Brussels on 29 September 1626 that there was one Capuchin whose zeal and work made him a bye-word both inside and outside Scotland 131 • Epiphanius dedicated his life to the neglected Catholics of the poor areas. He went around disguised as a shepherd, carrying bagpipes which he played at the fairs and other gatherings where he hoped to meet with Catholics. Though his was necessarily a life of hardship he insisted on observing a continuous fast of one meal a day until forced to moderate this practice by his confessor, the Jesuit, Clerc. Three times he was sold by false friends, but on each occasion succeeded in making a narrow escape. So his hard life continued for forty years, until death brought him relief about the year 1660 132 • He was then 127 See CUTHBERT, Capuchins II, 332-335. l28 FREDEGAND CALLAEY, art. cit., in Etudes Franc. 31(1914) 487-517. 1w For bibliographical indications see Lex.Cap., col. 538. 130 O'Co~NELL, Rist.Miss., 314. 1 s1 B. DE MEESTER, ed., Correspondance du nonce Giovanni-Francesco Guidi de Bagno, 1621-1627 II, Brussels-Rome 1938, 977. 132 It is generally assumed that he died about 1650, see Lex.Cap., col. 538. But a letter -of Fr. Chrysostom, a Scottish Capuchin, read to Propaganda on 1 July 1658, tells that Epipha– nius though old was still an active missionary (APP, Scritt.rif.cong.gen., 311, 169r, 178v).
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