The Cure of Ars on the Church in England

Today a colleague sent me the following hopeful story dating back to St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, whose Feast Day the Church celebrates today.

The story, we're told, "concerns a Protestant country that once merited the title “Isle of Saints”...

"On May 14th 1854, the Cure of Ars received a visit from Bishop Ullathorne of Birmingham. “I was speaking of prayer for England,” the Bishop writes, “and was describing in a few words the difficulties and sufferings of our poor Catholics for the faith, when suddenly he interrupted me by opening those eyes – cast into shadow by their depth, when listening or reflecting - and streaming their full light on me in a manner I can never forget, he said, in a voice as firm and full of confidence as though he were making an act of faith: “I believe that the Church in England will recover her ancient splendour”. I am sure he firmly believes this, from whatever source he has derived the impression”.