Orestes A. Brownson
Orestes A. Brownson was one of the keenest intellects that America has known. Before his conversion, which occurred in 1844, he wrote:
“We had wandered in darkness, stumbling from error to error, with downcast look and saddened heart, craving for freedom and finding only bondage.”
After his conversion he wrote:
“It is not easy to conceive the sense of freedom and relief one experiences in passing from Rationalism or any other form of Protestantism to Catholicity. The convert to the Church is the prisoner liberated from the Bastille; a weight is thrown from his shoulders, the manacles fall from his hands and the fetters from his feet; he feels as light and as free as the air, and he would chirp and sing as the bird. This world changes its hue in his eyes; and he runs and leaps under the blue sky of a boundless universe. His thought, his mind, his very soul, is lighted up, and revels in the freedom of universal truth. He feels that he has something whereon he can stand, that he has no longer to bear up the Church, but the Church can bear him up. He is conscious of an unfailing support and no longer fears that he is in danger every step he takes of having his footing give way and of falling through. His heart bounds with a sense of unlimited freedom, and with a joy unspeakable.”