by Dr. John C. Rao Rediscovery is the best word to characterize
the experience of a great number of committed Catholics of the
1800's. Throughout the post-French revolutionary Catholic world,
thinkers and activists of impressive caliber demonstrated a
desire to learn, develop and put into practice themes and
customs which had been buried by decades and even centuries of
Jansenist, naturalist, and simple parochial neglect. Depending
upon energy, taste, and imagination, this drive led them back to
the Fathers of the Church, to the medieval scholastics, and to a
mystical, devotional, and liturgical life rich in lessons for
both the Catholic community and individuals. The centers of re-
discoveryGerman, Italian, and French, for the most partwere
lay/clerical circles of believers, religious confraternities,
orders restored after the devastation of the Revolution,
university faculties, and groups gathering round those journals
and newspapers that seemed to spring up everywhere in the course
of the nineteenth century