"One of the most wonderful manifestations of God's benevolence during thestruggles of the primitive Church in these United States--" such is theimpressive estimate of the learned Jesuit scholar, Father Joseph M. Finotti,concerning the extraordinary but little known spiritual drama which took placesome 200 years ago near Martinsburg, West Virginia. And in fact, in the year1797, on a farm near the present Middleway, Jefferson County, West Virginia, aLutheran family was saved from diabolical persecutions by a Catholic priest andthen instructed in the Catholic religion by a mysterious, invisible Voice fromthe other world, that continued for seventeen years to enlighten, guide, andinspire these former Protestants and their Catholic friends to live as ferventand model Christians.
Frequently during those years, this mysticVoice, whose "influence was always beneficial," communicated timely warnings,prophecies, and messages of charity and mercy for many persons, which resultedin numerous conversions. That such seemingly miraculous phenomena did actuallytake place has never been questioned by serious historians.
According to the scholarly Professor P. J.Mahon, in his
Trials and Triumphs of the Catholic Church in America
(Chicago,1907), "no facts are better substantiated." Non-Catholic authorities alsoconfirm the truth of the events. In 1904 an article in
The West VirginiaHistorical Magazine
admitted that "the people there had no doubt of thefacts related." And as recently as 1941 the West Virginia guidebook of theAmerican Guide Series compiled by the Writers' Program of the Works ProjectAdministration gave nearly a whole page to an objective account of the locallyfamous Mystery of the Wizard Clip.
We shall now narrate the principal incidents ofthis fascinating and significant chapter in the early history of the CatholicChurch in the United States, for the most part in the same words as they arerecorded by eyewitnesses and by the children of eyewitnesses in Father J. M.Finotti's valuable collection of documents entitled
The Mystery of the WizardClip
. (Baltimore, 1879, 143p.).
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Holy Scripture teaches us that "it is honorableto reveal and confess the works of God" (Tobias 12:7). And it is our hope andprayer that many American Catholics - and non Catholics too - may come to shareFather Finotti's conviction that this stirring historical narrative "draws ourheart near to God; it teaches lessons of supernatural wisdom; the Finger of Godis Here! ... Herein lies the beauty of the story."
Adam Livingston was an honest and industriousLutheran who owned considerable property in York County, Pennsylvania. Due tomysterious causes, however, his property began to diminish in various ways: hisbarn burned down, and his horses and cattle died. As these losses continued,Livingston and his family decided to move.
Early in the seventeen nineties, therefore,with his second wife and several children, he left Pennsylvania and migrated tothe lower end of the lovely Shenandoah Valley, where he settled on a largeestate of the triangle formed by Charlestown, Martinsburg, and Winchester, allof which were then in the state of Virginia. But there too the same mysteriousforces continued to afflict the Livingston household. There too the cattle andhorses died. Now the very house in which Adam and his wife and children livedseemed to have become haunted: at night they were kept awake by weird noises,such as loud knocks and rumblings as of galloping horses and wagons. But evenin daylight their furniture would be suddenly banged about and their crockerysmashed onto the floor by invisible hands. Chunks of fire rolled out of thebeds across the rooms. At times the heads and legs of chickens and geese wereseen to drop off suddenly. But by far the most sensational of these devilishafflictions was the strange persistent clipping and cutting that attackedalmost every piece of cloth and leather on the Livingston estate. Sheets, tableclothes, shirts, dresses, suits and even leather boots and saddles, whether inuse or locked up in closets, were skillfully slit and clipped intocrescent-shaped strips by invisible shears!
The noise of the scissors clipping merrily awaywas distinctly heard on many occasions by members of the family. One old ladyin Martinsburg, wishing to satisfy her curiosity, went to visit theLivingstons, but before entering the haunted house she carefully took off hernew silk hat and wrapped it in her large handkerchief, to save it from beingclipped. Upon leaving, however, she found her new hat cut into small ribbons!
Poor old Mr. Livingston's mental torture wasacute and he turned to the Bible for help against these attacks which wereclearly diabolical. As Father Gallitzin later wrote, "the good old man readingin his Bible that Christ had given to His ministers power over evil spirits,started from his home to Winchester in Virginia, and having, with tears in hiseyes, related to his minister the history of his distress, losses andsufferings, begged of him to come to his house and to exercise in his favor thepower he had received from Jesus Christ.
The parson candidly confessed that he had nosuch power. The good man. . .therefore rationally concluded that Parson S ____could not be a minister of Christ ...and applied to other persons callingthemselves ministers of Christ, some of whom promised relief. They came, prayedand read; but they prayed and read in vain..."
As a result of so many disappointments, Mr.Livingston almost came to the conclusion that Christ no longer had any trueministers on earth. So in desperation he turned to some local conjurers ormagicians, one of whom promised to banish the evil spirit if paid a good sum inadvance, but refused the job when the shrewd old farmer offered to pay himdouble that amount - after he succeeded!
Three others came very confidently fromWinchester, but took to their heels when they saw a large stone whirl aroundthe living room without any support for fifteen minutes!
Then one night, Mr. Livingston had a strangedream. He saw a beautiful Church and in it a "minister dressed in peculiarrobes" and he heard a voice say to him: "That is the man who can relieve you."He decided to search that same morning for the minister dressed in robes. Hewas directed to the estate of a distinguished Catholic family named McSherry.Late that evening Mrs. McSherry saw Mr. Livingston, whose farm was about fourmiles away, coming toward her house and she met him at the gate. When he askedto see the priest, she told him there was no priest there then, but that onewould "hold church" at a home in Shepherdstown the following Sunday morning.
On the next Sunday, the McSherry's met Mr.Livingston in the Catholic home in Shepherdstown, and as soon as the priest,Father Dennis Cahill of Hagerstown, appeared at the altar vested for Mass, theold Lutheran farmer suddenly burst into tears and exclaimed: "That is the veryman I saw in my dream - he is the one who will relieve me!" When the Mass wasover, going right to the priest, he poured out his sad story and earnestlybegged him for help.
After much persuasion, Fr. Cahill agreed tovisit the haunted house. The priest questioned the whole Livingston family, butthey all told him exactly the same story. He therefore consented to say someprayers and to sprinkle the house with Holy Water. And as he was leaving, a sumof money that had lately vanished mysteriously from the farmer's locked chest,was suddenly laid by invisible hands on the door-sill between the priest'sfeet!
Now the Livingston home became quiet forseveral days. But soon the weird noises and dreaded clipping started again. SoFather Cahill came a second time and celebrated Holy Mass in the house, afterwhich the various disturbances ceased - for good! The old Lutheran farmer wasso deeply grateful for having obtained the relief which had been promised him,that he thereupon decided to accept the Catholic religion with all his family.
It was at this time, in the fall of the year1797, that a very remarkable young priest was sent by his superiors toinvestigate these strange happenings at Cliptown: the 27 year old FatherDemetrius A. "Smith", who was born Prince "Mitri" Gallitzin, the son of aGerman countess and a Russian prince-ambassador of the Empress Catherine theGreat. Later, during his forty years of holy and heroic service to God atLoretto, Pa., he was to become famous as the great "Apostle of theAlleghenies." Here is his testimony:
"My view in coming to Virginia and remainingthere three months, was to investigate those extraordinary facts atLivingston's, of which I had heard so much ... and which I could not prevailupon myself to believe; but I was soon converted to a full belief of them. Nolawyer in a court of justice did ever examine or cross-examine witnesses morestrictly than I did all those I could procure."
Through the divine power of the True Church ofChrist, the evil spirits were banished and in their place appeared a Spirit ofLight and Truth whose inspiring spiritual guidance brought about profoundchanges for the good in the lives of the Livingstons, the McSherrys and theirneighbors.
One evening, after he had been a Catholic forseveral weeks, Mr. Livingston perceived a dazzling light in one corner of hisroom and in an instant the whole house became filled with almost blindinglight. And then the old man began to hear a mysterious Voice, which instructedhim in the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist.
Often the Voice would come and exclaim: "I wantprayers" It would awaken Mr. and Mrs. Livingston at night and tell them to prayhard for perseverance and for sinners. Sometimes it made them pray for threehours; they admitted that it did not seem to be more than a few minutes. And itwould suddenly summon the whole family in the evenings with these words:"Come-take your seats!" And then it would instruct them very thoroughly in thevarious dogmas of the Catholic religion. It emphasized that although they couldnot see the person who was speaking to them, they should always obey thevisible voice which was the priest.
Some of the young children are reported to haveseen the author of the Voice. It revealed to Mr. Livingston that it had oncebeen in the flesh as he was, and that if he persevered he would know who it wasbefore his death. But he must have taken the secret to the grave when he diedin 1820.
After the Voice had sung three times verybeautifully in Latin and in English the Livingstons naturally thought thattheir mysterious visitor had perhaps been a priest. And indeed during the nextseventeen years the Voice acted as a wise but strict spiritual director for theLivingston and McSherry families. Whenever it came - sometimes accompanied bythe bright light, it would say:" In the Name of the Father and of the Son andof the Holy Ghost, three great Names! None greater on earth! None greater inHeaven!"
Once it ordered the Livingstons to keep a fortydays' fast with three hours of prayer each day. It also commanded them to keepthe fourth of March each year as a special holy day, in thanksgiving for theirconversion. And it was on that day, at the end of the forty days' fast, thatMr. Livingston heard it sing so beautifully, as also on one All Souls Day. Itsaid the souls in Purgatory were much rejoiced on the day of All Souls on whichthe whole world was praying for them.
Every night the Voice would join the family intheir prayers, saying the Rosary with them and instructing them how to praywell. It also explained the Mass to them and stated that "One Mass was moreacceptable to Almighty God than all the sighs and tears of the whole world puttogether, for it was God, a pure God, offered up to God."
It stressed what a blessing it is for us tohave the merciful Mother of God as our Advocate and that she has great power onbehalf of poor sinners. And because Mrs. Livingston, who had been aPresbyterian, was somewhat stubborn about honoring the Blessed Virgin, theVoice insisted that in the second part of the Hail Mary they say: "Holy, Holy,Holy Mary, Mother of God.."
Once when one of the Livingston girls went toconfession and failed to mention a certain sin through shame, the Voice notonly told the whole family that she had not mentioned it, but reminded her ofit and pressed her to confess it as soon as possible. When Mr. Livingston's sonHenry came of age, he refused to do the reaping unless his father paid himregular harvest wages. But very soon he was taken with a pain in his knee,which became so swollen and infected that he was confined to bed for eighteenmonths. After he had suffered that length of time, the Voice announced that "hehad satisfied the Justice of God for his disobedience and disrespect to hisfather," and the young man was healed. He must have taken this severe lesson toheart, for it is recorded that he too lived a very holy life henceforth. On the other hand, Father Gallitzin wrote that some of the otherLivingston children, "I believe they care very little for the Church."
It was particularly for the souls suffering inPurgatory that the Voice urged the Livingstons and McSherrys to pray, promisingthem that these souls, when delivered, would intercede for them at the throneof Almighty God. It told Mr. Livingston that every prayer they said for thepoor souls was like a fresh plaster on a sore wound. And it gave them severalunforgettable examples of the sufferings of Purgatory.
One day when Mr. Livingston was working in thefields with his sons, all of a sudden he was apparently taken ill, for they sawhim turn deathly pale and double up. As they helped him to walk home, heexplained that he had just heard a soul in Purgatory screaming for help. Andlater he often said that he could never forget that shriek - it had been sodreadful!
One night the Voice made the Livingstons get upthree times to pray for a certain soul in Purgatory. And when one of the girlsbegan to think that after all the souls could have saved themselves and theydeserved their pains and anyhow the whole thing was exaggerated, suddenly theyall heard a voice shrieking: "Help! Help!" When asked what kind of help wasneeded, it replied: "Prayers - for we are in excruciating torments. Hand mesomething - and you will be convinced!" And as soon as a shirt was held up, awhole human hand was burned into it, leaving the spaces between the fingers notscorched. The entire family saw both the flame and the hand.
On another occasion the letters IHS werecleanly burned in deep red colors on a vest. These supernaturally markedobjects, as well as some of the clipped cloth, were kept and seen by manypersons for over thirty years, although unfortunately they were all eventuallylost or destroyed.
The Voice often spoke of the grave troublesthat were hanging over the world, and it told Mr. Livingston to inform Mrs.McSherry that "she would not live to see it, but her children would - war,pestilence and famine!" It added that those of the family who would remainfaithful to God would not suffer from these scourges and that they would knowwhen they were in God's favor. And as a matter of fact, during the Civil War,none of the eight sons and daughters received the slightest injury, except forone son who died from overexertion in his work in a military hospital.
When Mrs. McSherry asked where the soul of herformer confessor was, expecting to hear that he was long since in Heaven, as hehad been a very holy priest who had died seventeen years before, the Voicereplied: "Father F____ is still detained in the scorching flames of Purgatory,on account of some carelessness in the management of some property of orphanshe had charge of. He trusted it to someone else, and did not see to it that itwas properly attended to."
Early one morning Mr. Livingston went over tothe McSherry estate and told Mrs. McSherry that the Voice had just informed himthat her sister, Mrs. Mary Spalding, had died at midnight in Baltimore, thatshe was in Purgatory "for over-indulgence to her children," and that Massesshould be offered for her soul. Several days later a letter arrived fromBaltimore announcing the death of Mrs. Spalding at the very hour mentioned bythe Voice. Mrs. McSherry had eighty Masses said for her sister. And one daywhen she was walking to the Livingston's with her husband, the gates were allopened for them to pass through, without anyone touching them. The Voiceexplained that "Mrs. Mary Spalding had opened them."
Mrs. McSherry had a brother at GeorgetownCollege studying for the priesthood. Through Mr. Livingston the Voice informedher that her brother had become a blasphemer, who openly stated that he didn'tbelieve in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament nor the power topriests to forgive sins. The Voice added that if he died in that state of mindhe would open his eyes in the raging flames below among the damned. The Voicecommanded his brothers and sisters to go to him and fall upon their knees andsay to him: "In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,why will you not believe that there is a God and that nothing is difficult orimpossible to Him and that it is as easy for Him to give us His Precious Bodyand Blood as to give us a cup of cold water." But he did not return to God and,as the Voice foretold, he died in his sins. He was thrown from a horse and diedof a broken neck. This sad event occurred in Kentucky.
On one occasion, when Mr. Livingston's familyassembled in one room, they saw a man in the midst of them and supposing him tobe a beggar, as he was poorly dressed and barefooted, the day being cold, Mr.Livingston offered him clothes and shoes, which he accepted but said they werenot needed where he came from. He tarried for some time, instructing them inthe Christian doctrine and talking to them. He told them; "Luther and Calvinwere in Hell and every soul that was lost through their fault added to theirtorments." When he left the house, Mr. Livingston thought to watch him, to seewhere he went, as they had not seen him when he came in; they saw him go out bythe front part of the house and then disappear.
As was only to be expected, these extraordinaryevents and revelations resulted in the conversion of many friends and relativesof the two favored families. In fact during one winter fourteen persons areknown to have joined the Catholic Church in the region around "Priest's Place,"as the Livingston property now came to be called. And the Catholics nearby ofMaryland and Virginia were inspired to lead better lives, particularly whenthey saw that the Livingstons and the McSherrys, under the guidance of themystic Voice, had become ardent lay-apostles of Christ.
Mr. Livingston, before his conversion, bore hislosses very impatiently, but after his conversion, he never complained. InJanuary, 1800, when the Protestant wife of the somewhat lax Catholic, Mr.Joseph Minghini, fell dangerously ill, at the bidding of the Voice Mrs.McSherry visited and consoled her. After they had repeated an Act of Contritiontogether, the dying woman seemed to be truly penitent and ready to see apriest. But her husband protested that she had her own preachers and that therewas no priest within forty miles. Finally however, as the Voice had urged andpredicted, Father Gallitzin was summoned and he received Mrs. Minghini into theChurch.
The Voice had also specified that the messengerwould meet both Father Cahill and Father Gallitzin, but that the latter was theone intended for the woman, "as being of a milder nature." A few weeks later,in a letter to Bishop Carroll, Father Gallitzin described the conversion as"miraculous". When Mrs. McSherry returned home she dreamed that she saw alittle child strike a great rock with a stick, whereupon the stone crumbled todust. The next morning the Voice informed her through the Livingstons that Mrs.Minghini had died during the night and that her sins had crumbled away, likethe rock, as a result of her sincere contrition and the priest's absolution.
Another striking incident, however, served as avivid warning against waiting for a death-bed conversion. The Protestant wifeof a Catholic man in Winchester being near death and having finally asked for apriest, a messenger was sent to the McSherry's estate and found the priestthere. But when they searched for the priest's horse, Old Bull, in a smallnearby field called Spring Pasture, where it had been seen only a few momentsbefore, no one could find the horse! After considerable searching and delay,one of Mr. McSherry's horses was saddled and the priest left. Soon afterwardsOld Bull was heard neighing and was found in the middle of Spring Pasture tothe utter amazement of the thirty persons who had just searched for him invain. Then Mr. Livingston was told by the Voice that the horse had been thereall the time but had been made invisible, because the woman put off herconversion until the last moment, that she had died before the priest couldreach her - as was subsequently confirmed - and that Almighty God had permittedthis as a warning to the living not to depend on a death-bed repentance.
The Voice frequently advised the Livingstons topray for perseverance and that there was but one Church out of which there wasno salvation. One night, in hard rain, a stranger came to Mr. McSherry andasked for a night's lodging. It was most convenient for Mrs. McSherry to puthim in the room where the Priest usually slept and where the Church vestmentsand etc. were kept. They both knew him to be a Methodist Preacher. Afterretiring, Mr. & Mrs. McSherry heard someone walking briskly about in thatroom, somewhat like one heavily booted. They were kept awake the whole nightand much disturbed. In the morning they asked the stranger whether he had notbeen sick during the night; but he replied, no, he had slept very well. Mr.Livingston meantime, came and told them they had had an unpleasant night, beingkept awake. The Voice had told him to tell them; "God had permitted them to bedisturbed to punish them for harboring him in a place where sacred things werekept - a minister of the devil."
In August, 1804, Mr. McSherry nearly died of asevere illness. Having had some unpleasant difference with Father Cahill, hehad not been to confession and communion for some time. But now the Voice toldMr. Livingston to go to Mr. McSherry and "his dear helpmate," as it alwayscalled his wife (according to Father Gallitzin), and to tell them that Mr.McSherry "should humble himself and go to confession, and touch Christ throughthe Church and he would be cured." The apparently dying man immediately sentfor Father Cahill and that same night, which his family thought would be hislast, he made his confession, received Holy Communion, made his thanksgivingand then fell into a peaceful sleep. The next morning he was up before anyoneelse and when his family saw him walking around the house, some of them atfirst thought he was a ghost. Actually, though still pale and emaciated, he wascompletely cured. And he lived until September 7, 1822.
Mr. Livingston's second wife, despite the factthat she heard the Voice more frequently than anyone, was never sincerelyconverted. She herself used to say that she was the Judas of the family, andshe constantly tried to falsify whatever the Voice said. One Thursday eveningwhen some meat-soup was left after dinner, she decided to serve it on Fridayand she therefore locked it in the cellar. But the next morning she found thepot in which she had left the soup filled with exactly the same quantity ofclear water! And the Voice told her that it had done it for "it was more properto take water than to violate the rules of the Church!" Mrs. Livingstonherself told Mrs. McSherry the whole occurrence. She also stated that the Voicehad said, "If she would not submit to the rules of the Roman Catholic Church,she would open her eyes in Hell."
The Voice also prophesied that she would die inher own home and room, and so when she became ill she deliberately left thehouse, in order to prove the Voice wrong, and went to live with a Quakerfamily, whose daughter happened to be dying. This girl told Mrs. Livingstonthat she wanted some spiritual help but did not know just what it was sheneeded. The Voice informed Mrs. Livingston that it was Baptism and urged her toarrange for it. After the girl died without being baptized, the Voice told Mrs.Livingston that this would appear against her on Judgment Day. And when she wasnear death, she was obliged by circumstances to beg to be taken home, where shedied in her own room, just as the Voice had foretold. Everything that the Voicepredicted happened accordingly.
One of the Livingston girls, Eve, became a verysaintly woman. However, once after joining the Catholic Church, she went to aProtestant meeting and while there, she was moved to tears at the sight of somany persons who did not know anything of the True Church. But the Voicereproved her for going to the meeting, saying that she "had committed a greatsin, as the people thought she was affected by what she heard - they did notknow her thoughts."
Eve Livingston spent much of her time with thedevout old Mrs. McSherry, and after she died "in the odor of sanctity," theVoice declared that "her soul did not even pass through Purgatory."
Mrs. McSherry, "the dear helpmate," had at leasttwo remarkable mystical experiences. One day she was frightened at seeing acradle containing her infant son William being rocked violently without anyonetouching it. Later the Voice told her through Mr. Livingston that "it was theDevil who was trying to destroy the child, knowing that he would one day be hisenemy." And in fact that child became the Very Reverend William McSherry, oneof the Provincials of the Society of Jesus in the United States.
One Sunday Mrs. McSherry stayed home with a sickchild while the rest of the family went to Church. As she was praying for herchild in an upstairs room, she suddenly saw a beautiful person standing beforeher in a light cloud, with one hand up and the other down, and a nail runningthrough each hand, who said to her: "Whatsoever you do for one of My littleones, you do it for Me." She told no one about this marvelous vision, until thepriest informed her that the Voice had described it to Mr. Livingston.
One night the good old farmer and his daughterCharlotte were sitting together, when the Voice spoke from a bright light in acorner of the room and told the girl that the Devil had been trying to tempther all day and would have succeeded, if she had not been holding in her armsall the time a neighbor's baby, but "the innocence of the babe had protectedher."
Of course in those times as today many personsrefused to believe what they heard about these supernatural events. Once whenMr. Livingston wanted to warn some acquaintances about their way of living, theVoice said: "No - they are like Dives: if they will not hear the Church, theywill not hear a voice from the dead." However, soon after his conversion, theformer Lutheran went to Baltimore to see Bishop Carroll and the wise andcautious old "Founding Father" of the Catholic Church in the United States,after a thorough examination, declared that "he thought the man had receivedhis knowledge from above."
Nevertheless the Voice warned Mr. Livingstonthat many people would not believe these things, that even some priests wouldlaugh and not believe and that when he saw this, he should not try to convincethem.
Mr. Livingston seems to have become especiallydevoted to Father Gallitzin, whom he visited at Conewago near Gettysburg only ayear or two after joining the Catholic Church. He is known to have walked thereand back, and the Voice told him "that it had been with him the whole way." Itis also said, though without conclusive evidence, that through Mr. Livingstonthe Voice disclosed to Father Gallitzin some of his future sufferings andadvised him how to bear them. In any case it is a significant fact that,according to Father Gallitzin, "Mr. Livingston removed from Virginia to BedfordCounty, Pennsylvania, about twenty miles from here (Loretta), where he died inthe spring of 1820. I had Mass at his house repeatedly. He continued, to thelast, very attentive to his duties, but did not receive the rites of the Churchin his last sickness, which carried him off too quick to afford any chance ofsending for a priest."
Let us end our story with this wise advice fromFather Joseph M. Finotti, S.J.: "The narrative of the Clip is for edification;it draws our heart near to God, it teaches lessons of supernatural wisdom. Withuncovered head, then, unsandalled feet, and humble brow we approach the spotand reverently exclaim- The Finger of God is here!"