Father Crépin

— Recently the newspapers announced the death of a man who lived in Lyon, where he was known by the name of Father Crépin. He was several times over a millionaire and of an uncommon avarice. In the last years of his life he had come to live with the Favre couple, who undertook to feed him for 30 centimes a day, after deducting 10 centimes for his tobacco. He owned nine houses and formerly lived in one of them, in a kind of niche he had had built under the stairs. At the time of collecting the rents he would tear the posters from the streets and use them to write out the receipts. The municipal decree that required the whitewashing of dwellings caused him terrible despair; he made efforts to obtain an exemption, but all was in vain. He cried out that he was ruined. If he had had only one house, he would have resigned himself; but – he added – I have nine.

[Evocation of Father Crépin.]

Evocation Answer. – Here I am. What do you want of me? Oh! my gold! my gold! What have they done with it?

Do you miss earthly life?

Answer. – Oh! Yes!

Why do you miss it?

Answer. – I can no longer touch my gold, count it and keep it.

How do you spend your time?

Answer. – I am still very much bound to the Earth and it is hard for me to repent.

Do you sometimes come to see your dear treasures and your houses again?

Answer. – As often as I can.

When alive did you ever consider that you would carry none of it to the other world?

Answer. – No. My sole concern was directed toward riches, so as to accumulate them; I never thought of parting from them.

What was your aim in accumulating those riches, which served no purpose, not even for yourself, considering that you went through many privations?

Answer. – I experienced the voluptuous pleasure of touching them.

Whence came such sordid avarice?

Answer. – From the pleasure my spirit and my heart experienced in having much money. On Earth I had no other passion.

Do you understand that it was avarice?

Answer. – Yes, I understand now that I was a wretch. Yet my heart is still very earthly and I continue to experience a certain pleasure in seeing my gold; but I cannot handle it, and this is already a beginning of punishment in the life in which I find myself.

Did you experience no feeling of pity for the unfortunate who suffered in misery, and did the thought never come to you to relieve them?

Answer. – Why did they have no money? Too bad for them!

Do you recall the existence you had, prior to this one you have just left?

Answer. – Yes, I was a shepherd, very unfortunate in body, but happy in heart.

What were your first thoughts when you recognized yourself in the world of Spirits?

Answer. – My first thought was to look for my riches, especially my gold. When I saw nothing but space, I felt very unhappy; my heart was shattered and remorse began to take hold of me. I believe that the more I continue to look for riches, the more I shall suffer from my earthly avarice.

What is now, for you, the consequence of your earthly life?

Answer. – Useless to my fellow men, useless before eternity, but unhappy for me before God.

Are you able to foresee a new corporeal existence?

Ans. – I do not know.

If you were soon to have a new corporeal existence, which would you choose?

Answer. – I would choose an existence in which I could become useful to my fellow men.

When alive did you have no friends on Earth? A miser such as you cannot have them. Do you have them among the Spirits?

Answer. – I never prayed for anyone; my guardian angel, whom I greatly offended, is the only one who has pity on me.

At your entrance into the world of Spirits was there someone who came to receive you?

Answer. – Yes, my mother.

Have you already been evoked by other people?

Answer. – Once, by people whom I mistreated.

Were you not in Africa, in a center where they occupy themselves with the Spirits?

Answer. – Yes, but all those people had no pity for me, which is very sad. Here you are compassionate.

Will our evocation be profitable to you?

Answer. – Very much.

How did you acquire your fortune?

Answer. – I earned a little honestly; but I exploited much and robbed my fellow men a little.

Can we do something for you?

Answer. – Yes, a little of your pity for a soul in suffering.

(SOCIETY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1859.)

QUESTIONS ADDRESSED TO SAINT LOUIS CONCERNING FATHER CRÉPIN.

Father Crépin, whom we evoked recently, was a rare type of miser. He could not give us explanations about the origin of that passion. Would you have the kindness to complete them for us? He told us that he had been a shepherd, very unfortunate in body, but happy in heart. We see nothing in that which could have developed in him this sordid avarice. Could you tell us what gave rise to it? Answer. – He was ignorant, inexperienced; he asked for riches and they were granted to him, but as a punishment for his request. He will not ask for them again, you may be sure.

Father Crépin offers us the type of ignoble avarice, but this passion admits of gradations. Thus, there are people who are miserly only toward others. We ask which is the more culpable: he who accumulates for the pleasure of accumulating and deprives himself even of the necessary, or he who, depriving himself of nothing, is stingy when it comes to the slightest sacrifice for his neighbor? Answer. – It is evident that the latter is more culpable, inasmuch as he is profoundly selfish. The other is mad.

In the trials he must undergo to attain perfection, must the Spirit pass through every kind of temptation? In relation to Father Crépin, could we say that the occasion for avarice came through the riches that were at his disposal, and that he succumbed? Answer. – This is not a general rule, but it is exact in his case. You know that there are many who from the very beginning take a path that frees them from many trials.