The 1927 biography of Teresa Helena Higginson by Lady Cecil Kerr has been republished by Gracewing with an introduction by Fr Paul Haffner. (404 pages £17.99) There is a dedicated website for Teresa Higginson; this is the introduction from there:Teresa Higginson (1844-1905) was a saintly Catholic schoolteacher. She was born in North Wales, lived most of her life in North West England and Edinburgh, Scotland and died in Chudleigh, Devon. It seems she received many supernatural gifts from God, such as healing, prophecy, bilocation and the stigmata. It is claimed that she was chosen by Christ to make known the devotion to his Sacred Head as the Seat of Divine Wisdom. This would be a remedy for a time of extraordinary intellectual pride and falling-away from faith. It would not only be the completion of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, but the crowning of all devotions. In fact it was prophesied as the one great means for the conversion of England.I remember many years ago looking at some of the original correspondence which was, at that time, at St Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate. I also read through a lengthy correspondence in the Tablet in the late 1930s. This was brought to an abrupt end when the paper received a hint from the Holy Office that her cause was not to be proceeded with. How times change!
If I remember rightly, the reason for hesitation was some fear that there might be a confusion with some aspects of devotion to the Holy Face that were under suspicion. The devotion to the Sacred Head is , in fact, quite a different thing and very much a devotion for our time. The Sacred Head of Jesus is venerated as the seat of Divine Wisdom, just as his Sacred Heart is venerated as the seat of Divine Love.
Certainly there is intellectual pride and a widespread falling away from the faith. I must have another read of the biography (I have a first edition). It is great that Fr Haffner has done the introduction to the new edition - he is a fine scholar and teacher, especially interested in the relationship between science and religion. He has written several theology text books published by Gracewing.
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Dear Father Tim
Thank you for highlighting Teresa Helena Higginson.
A few months ago we took a trip over to visit her grave in St. Winefride's churchyard at Neston on the Wirral peninsula. Moments after arrival and saying a brief prayer the heavens opened and a loud clatter of thunder flashed close by. As we ran for shelter I remarked that perhaps all this was symbolic!
There is a lot to be said for the Devotion to the Sacred Head of Jesus at this juncture in history, when we have become so proud as even to begin to call ourselves a 'post-rational' age!
Another striking aspect is the devotion to the soul of Jesus - Teresa said that the Lord told her that His Body, Blood and Divinity were honoured; but that His soul must be honoured also.
The beautiful church in Bootle on Merseyside, where Teresa attended Holy Mass during her time teaching there, was pulled down during the leadership of Archbishop Dereck Worlock. However, only last week we heard that a group of ladies in Bootle are beginning a renewed effort at prayer for her cause with monthly days of prayer to be held in Bootle.
Teresa's fame travels far - a few years ago in Ohio a young American lad, who was hoping to train for the priesthood, overheard our British accents and asked whether we had heard of Teresa Higginson as he had great devotion to her!
A friend from Liverpool, who now lives overseas, used to tell us to buy property in Bootle as some day Teresa will make it great and it will be a key place for evangelisation. He claimed that property prices would sky rocket. Alas we sold our Bootle home to fund our American studies!!!
Still, we recently were loaned a copy of Cecil Kerr's book by a lady in Chester - a good winter read!
In Christ
Alan and Angeline
That's very interesting about the human soul of Jesus. It is a doctrine of the faith that He had a human soul and with the doubts raised about Our Lord by modernist theologians, it is perhaps a good idea to focus on the qualities of Our Lord's human soul.
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