Suez - Inauguration Ceremony

Speech given by monsignor Bauer,
the Vatican protonotary, blessing the universal maritime Suez canal.

Port Said, 16th November, 1869.
" Monsignor (the Khedive),
" Madame (Empress Eugénie),
" Sire (Emperor François-Joseph) (1),
I think I may be allowed to say that a time has arrived which is not just one of the most solemn of the century but also one of the greatest and most decisive that mankind has seen since the beginning of its history here.

This place enveloping Africa and Asia which no longer touch each other, now this great celebration of man, this august and cosmopolitan participation by all the races of the world, all the flags and standards flapping joyfully under this immense and radiant sky, the cross, upright and respected by everyone, opposite the crescent!

Here there is nothing that is not amazing - it is all one extraordinary contrast. Here dreams, which no one thought would come true, have become reality. Here amongst such wonders, everything is a cause for reflection, there is nothing but joy, now and for the future, nothing but glorious hope!

Yes! here it is at last, in view, at our feet, this enormous work, the universal canal belonging to two worlds. And we thought this canal impossible, because we did not realise what a determined man could achieve. Here it is, created by creatures, this waterway which will now be the subject of eternal amazement for generations! Here it is, created by science, audacity, wealth, battles of all kinds, perseverance, man’s genius and, clearly, under God’s protection!

Here are vessels from every nation, ready to cross for the first time the threshold which makes the East and the West into one world: the barrier is down; one of man’s and civilisation’s most formidable enemies distance has lost 2,000 leagues of its empire in one fell swoop. The two ends of the earth have moved closer. And as they move closer, they begin to recognise each other. And as they begin to recognise each other, all men, children of one and the same God, experience the thrill of their brotherhood. Ah! The West! Ah! The East! Come closer, look, recognise each other, greet each other and embrace each other! First, greetings to you, the splendid East, whence comes the light for each dawn which makes our mortal days; and from the dawn of centuries, we get the illumination of intelligence and, more radiantly than the light of all souls, we get the portent of the day that will never end.

Greetings to you, marvellous West who, after receiving the double light, has tried and still tries, each day, and especially at this time, to make all humanity one. Ah! Let people from East to the West say, “The great way of the nations is open!” The Indian Ocean and the Red Sea are now one and the same flow.

The history of the world has reached one of its most glorious moments. Just as we have divided the past into the centuries which have preceded or followed the discovery of America, so in the future, they will say "It was before or after the day when the West and the East met through the open flanks of Egypt; it was before or after the 16th November, 1869; it was before or after the opening of the universal maritime Suez canal”.

(Applause.)

And perhaps here is more than the discovery of a new world. Here we have the joining of two known worlds in one!

It is true that initially the most striking thing is the physical or material grandeur of the work itself, dreamed of with such audacity, planned so marvellously, executed with such perseverance and, finally, finished with such excellence. But behind the material, the thinker descries horizons far vaster than the measurable spaces, horizons without limits, where the greatest destinies, the most glorious conquests and the most immortal certitudes of the human kind are acted out.

Now, vessels from the world over can sail on a direct route from Indo-China to the heart of the European West. What will these bold messengers bring, to whom genius gave steam and to whom steam gave wings? Above all, they will bring the merchant wealth of the nations which, in being exchanged, will illustrate even more clearly than in the past, one of the Creator’s most admirable laws.

For, by giving man everywhere the same needs but unequal shares of creation’s riches to each country, God wanted to make the nations dependant on each other. Men of all races, of all countries and of all beliefs, which I see in front of me now, are not just brothers because of their single origin but they are united by their common interest. Once again, it is God who has made this, creating men with the same needs and countries with the most varied of produce.

Honour should therefore go to this great force which envelops the world in the miraculous chain of work and prosperity which we call Commerce. Commerce is more than strength, it is glory; it is more and better than glory, it is a benefit. Because commerce does not limit itself to creating wealth, it also contributes - greatly - to creating this great wonder, for which man so passionately struggles: civilisation!

(Applause.)

Yes, civilisation! Today civilisation is celebrating one of the greatest events ever recorded in the annals of history. Set sail from all the ports of all the world, you ships of all the peoples of the earth! Disappear into the immensity of the horizon, taking with you in the depths of your holds the produce of all the lands and the works of all the peoples.

And as you cross the seas, loaded with all this heavy cargo, invisible and mysterious passengers - ideas, habits, customs, different languages and fellow feeling - will come on board or sail in convoy with you. They will cross this isthmus so magnificently pierced, and will disembark at all your ports of call. And thus, all the men who ever swung a pickaxe at the canal of the two worlds, even if they were digging merely for commerce's sake, they, the conscious or unconscious pioneers of Providence, will have had the glory of swinging the axe to open the magnificent route which will now and forever let pass peace and justice, light and truth, that is to say, true civilisation in the best sense of the term.

After having celebrated the double grandeur and the essentially civilising significance of this truly incomparable work, there is one thing left for us to do. We must pay public and formal homage, here on this shore, before all, before this assembly of all the peoples represented here by their sovereigns, their princes, their ambassadors, their clergy and the elite of all countries, before history which is preparing to write one of its greatest pages, we must, I repeat, render homage, here and now, to those who were, who are and who will be the winners of this great peaceful battle, a battle won finally for the benefit of mankind.

Monsignor (the Khedive),

It is absolutely right and proper that we address our first word of thanks to you, your Highness.

Kindly accept, Monsignor, the respectful thanks of the good men who dearly wished for the success of this work, unparalleled in the history of the world. Throughout all its inumerable difficulties, you persevered in your wish for this great and so eminently civilising work. And what you wished for, you courageously supported and, in the end, generously carried out. Today, you may fully enjoy your glorious success.

Now, at this great moment in your life and in your reign, the East and the West thank you through me: Egypt, destined to reap the first of the fruits of this great labour, will call you the one who brought about her renaissance, and history will reserve a glorious and truly earned page for the Khedive Ismail.

(Applause.)

Kindly also allow a priest to thank you, in the presence of your illustrious guests, for the enormous freedom and the truly royal gifts given to Christianity, its worship, its works, its institutions and its schools, here in this land of the pharaohs, which was once the land of all servitude but which, today, is becoming the land of all freedom.

It is to Your Highness that this happy transformation is due. Does not the solemnity of this day speak more eloquently than any speech on the enormous amount of ground covered? For the first time in twelve centuries, the Christian faith can raise its voice in prayer and its hands in blessing, out in the open and in front of the Crescent. That is certainly a great fact and a great moment. Thank-you, Monsignor, for having wanted this and for having called for this: a heartfelt thank-you, in the name of Christianity; thank-you in the name of France and in the name of Europe; thank-you in the name of all humanity whose destiny takes a great step forward today, thanks to Your Highness who works for good and thanks to God who blesses it.

(Applause.)

Madam (the Empress Eugénie)

Those who have closely co-operated in this great work know the part that Your Majesty has played: it is enormous. And it perfectly matches your manlike courage that you performed this greatest of tasks in silence. But we must not collude with this silence; that would falsify history and frustrate posterity.

It is important that history knows that this great work is, in large part, yours and, when history says this, it will be telling the absolute truth. History will add, Madam, that in giving your powerful support to the canal-of-two-worlds, you were in strict communion with the thoughts and feelings of the whole of France which was greatly desirous of this work; the generous and noble France which, across all her social classes, was enthusiastic about the digging of the Suez isthmus and supplied her millions and her hands, her intelligence and her energy, her engineers and her workers, her personnel and her materials; finally, France personified, so to speak, in one of her sons, a man magnificently gifted by providence for this wonderful task with his persuasive and homely eloquence, his fiery spirit, his invincible tenacity, his strength and gentleness, his consummate suitability and his truly gallant loyalty, in short, by his - you could almost say - super-human faith in the accomplishment of this gigantic work, derided by the world only to become today the object of its most enthusiastic admiration.

Now that the unbelievable has become reality, that the so-called pipe-dream has come true, splendid and complete before our happy eyes, what is going through the mind of he who was behind all we see?

Only God knows.

I think I can see tears shining in his eyes; I wish I could collect them, because they belong first to France and second to mankind. Let us loudly proclaim this man’s name, the name which now belongs to history where, through a rare privilege of Providence, he enters alive: let us proclaim before the whole earth that France, which is far away but not absent, is happy with and proud of her son.
Let us proclaim to very end of the age that just as the New World (discovered in the 15th century) is a permanent reminder to posterity of the name of that man of genius who discovered it, Christopher Columbus, just so the canal between these two continents will be a continuous memorial to the name of a man of the 19th century, a name which I am proud to pronounce on this shore and cry aloud to the four corners of the world, that of Ferdinand de Lesseps.

(Long rounds of applause)

We may not mention here the names of all those who deserve to be cited along with him; but let us not forget those men both high and low who perished on the glorious field of this enterprise. Let us, on this victorious day, stand in remembrance of those tombs, dear both to their native lands and at the same time to all humanity. Nor will our mourning be tinged with nationalism. For those who died here came from every people on the globe, and our victory is over the earth, the desert, the waves, it is the victory of civilisation.

(Applause)

And now allow me, before finishing, to thank our illustrious hosts, those who have brought us the delight and done us the honour to be present here today.

My Lord, your Apostolic Highness has honoured worthily this great enterprise by coming to be here at the moment when the Adriatic (which washes up on the shores of your Empire) and the Red Sea become one long river, flowing into the Indian Ocean. May the God whom you have just praised in public by kneeling on the tomb of the Saviour of the World, shower His blessings upon you, your lineage and on the great Empire which He has seen fit to place under your care.

May all the nations, whose princes and ambassadors ennoble this great day, prosper in peace and concord, and may the greatness of each nation become the greatness of all, thus effecting peace throughout all the World.

And to finish this august ceremony in a dignified manner, let us turn our thoughts not just to the image of each country but to the grandeur of the whole of humanity and then above and beyond humanity. Let us lift our souls to the eternal and adorable Divinity who, in His infinite goodness, granted to men the power to build such a prodigious work, a sort of creation within creation, in that it has made the continents of Africa and Asia, which God made one, into two continents. The canal of the two worlds has become the limit of the immensity of these two continents, it has become the immortal and fertile separator of these two worlds.

God, all powerful and eternal, God, creator of the world, Father of every creature, bless this new waterway which You have granted to man to make in the bosom of Your creation. Make this river not only a great path to universal prosperity, but also a royal path to peace and justice, to light and immortal truth. May Your divine spirit move on the face of these waters, may it cross, and cross again, from East to West and from West to East. O God, use this waterway to bring men closer together but most of all, bring them closer to You and be their solace in everything both now and unto eternity.

(Long applause)

(1) Present were: His Royal Highness the Prince of Prussia and Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess Henri of the Netherlands.



Speech given by monsignor Bauer, the Vatican protonotary, blessing the universal maritime Suez canal.
Port Said, 16th November, 1869. " Monsignor (the Khedive), " Madame (Empress Eugénie), " Sire (Emperor François-Joseph) (1), I think I may be allowed to say that a time has arrived which is not just one of the most solemn of the century but also one of the greatest and most decisive that mankind has seen since the beginning of its history here. This place enveloping Africa and Asia which no longer touch each other, now this great celebration of man, this august and cosmopolitan participation by all the races of the world, all the flags and standards flapping joyfully under this immense and radiant sky, the cross, upright and respected by everyone, opposite the crescent! Here there is nothing that is not amazing - it is all one extraordinary contrast. Here dreams, which no one thought would come true, have become reality. Here amongst such wonders, everything is a cause for reflection, there is nothing but joy, now and for the future, nothing but glorious hope! Yes! here it is at last, in view, at our feet, this enormous work, the universal canal belonging to two worlds. And we thought this canal impossible, because we did not realise what a determined man could achieve. Here it is, created by creatures, this waterway which will now be the subject of eternal amazement for generations! Here it is, created by science, audacity, wealth, battles of all kinds, perseverance, man’s genius and, clearly, under God’s protection! Here are vessels from every nation, ready to cross for the first time the threshold which makes the East and the West into one world: the barrier is down; one of man’s and civilisation’s most formidable enemies distance has lost 2,000 leagues of its empire in one fell swoop. The two ends of the earth have moved closer. And as they move closer, they begin to recognise each other. And as they begin to recognise each other, all men, children of one and the same God, experience the thrill of their brotherhood. Ah! The West! Ah! The East! Come closer, look, recognise each other, greet each other and embrace each other! First, greetings to you, the splendid East, whence comes the light for each dawn which makes our mortal days; and from the dawn of centuries, we get the illumination of intelligence and, more radiantly than the light of all souls, we get the portent of the day that will never end. Greetings to you, marvellous West who, after receiving the double light, has tried and still tries, each day, and especially at this time, to make all humanity one. Ah! Let people from East to the West say, “The great way of the nations is open!” The Indian Ocean and the Red Sea are now one and the same flow. The history of the world has reached one of its most glorious moments. Just as we have divided the past into the centuries which have preceded or followed the discovery of America, so in the future, they will say "It was before or after the day when the West and the East met through the open flanks of Egypt; it was before or after the 16th November, 1869; it was before or after the opening of the universal maritime Suez canal”. (Applause.) And perhaps here is more than the discovery of a new world. Here we have the joining of two known worlds in one! It is true that initially the most striking thing is the physical or material grandeur of the work itself, dreamed of with such audacity, planned so marvellously, executed with such perseverance and, finally, finished with such excellence. But behind the material, the thinker descries horizons far vaster than the measurable spaces, horizons without limits, where the greatest destinies, the most glorious conquests and the most immortal certitudes of the human kind are acted out. Now, vessels from the world over can sail on a direct route from Indo-China to the heart of the European West. What will these bold messengers bring, to whom genius gave steam and to whom steam gave wings? Above all, they will bring the merchant wealth of the nations which, in being exchanged, will illustrate even more clearly than in the past, one of the Creator’s most admirable laws. For, by giving man everywhere the same needs but unequal shares of creation’s riches to each country, God wanted to make the nations dependant on each other. Men of all races, of all countries and of all beliefs, which I see in front of me now, are not just brothers because of their single origin but they are united by their common interest. Once again, it is God who has made this, creating men with the same needs and countries with the most varied of produce. Honour should therefore go to this great force which envelops the world in the miraculous chain of work and prosperity which we call Commerce. Commerce is more than strength, it is glory; it is more and better than glory, it is a benefit. Because commerce does not limit itself to creating wealth, it also contributes - greatly - to creating this great wonder, for which man so passionately struggles: civilisation! (Applause.) Yes, civilisation! Today civilisation is celebrating one of the greatest events ever recorded in the annals of history. Set sail from all the ports of all the world, you ships of all the peoples of the earth! Disappear into the immensity of the horizon, taking with you in the depths of your holds the produce of all the lands and the works of all the peoples. And as you cross the seas, loaded with all this heavy cargo, invisible and mysterious passengers - ideas, habits, customs, different languages and fellow feeling - will come on board or sail in convoy with you. They will cross this isthmus so magnificently pierced, and will disembark at all your ports of call. And thus, all the men who ever swung a pickaxe at the canal of the two worlds, even if they were digging merely for commerce's sake, they, the conscious or unconscious pioneers of Providence, will have had the glory of swinging the axe to open the magnificent route which will now and forever let pass peace and justice, light and truth, that is to say, true civilisation in the best sense of the term. After having celebrated the double grandeur and the essentially civilising significance of this truly incomparable work, there is one thing left for us to do. We must pay public and formal homage, here on this shore, before all, before this assembly of all the peoples represented here by their sovereigns, their princes, their ambassadors, their clergy and the elite of all countries, before history which is preparing to write one of its greatest pages, we must, I repeat, render homage, here and now, to those who were, who are and who will be the winners of this great peaceful battle, a battle won finally for the benefit of mankind. Monsignor (the Khedive), It is absolutely right and proper that we address our first word of thanks to you, your Highness. Kindly accept, Monsignor, the respectful thanks of the good men who dearly wished for the success of this work, unparalleled in the history of the world. Throughout all its inumerable difficulties, you persevered in your wish for this great and so eminently civilising work. And what you wished for, you courageously supported and, in the end, generously carried out. Today, you may fully enjoy your glorious success. Now, at this great moment in your life and in your reign, the East and the West thank you through me: Egypt, destined to reap the first of the fruits of this great labour, will call you the one who brought about her renaissance, and history will reserve a glorious and truly earned page for the Khedive Ismail. (Applause.) Kindly also allow a priest to thank you, in the presence of your illustrious guests, for the enormous freedom and the truly royal gifts given to Christianity, its worship, its works, its institutions and its schools, here in this land of the pharaohs, which was once the land of all servitude but which, today, is becoming the land of all freedom. It is to Your Highness that this happy transformation is due. Does not the solemnity of this day speak more eloquently than any speech on the enormous amount of ground covered? For the first time in twelve centuries, the Christian faith can raise its voice in prayer and its hands in blessing, out in the open and in front of the Crescent. That is certainly a great fact and a great moment. Thank-you, Monsignor, for having wanted this and for having called for this: a heartfelt thank-you, in the name of Christianity; thank-you in the name of France and in the name of Europe; thank-you in the name of all humanity whose destiny takes a great step forward today, thanks to Your Highness who works for good and thanks to God who blesses it. (Applause.) Madam (the Empress Eugénie) Those who have closely co-operated in this great work know the part that Your Majesty has played: it is enormous. And it perfectly matches your manlike courage that you performed this greatest of tasks in silence. But we must not collude with this silence; that would falsify history and frustrate posterity. It is important that history knows that this great work is, in large part, yours and, when history says this, it will be telling the absolute truth. History will add, Madam, that in giving your powerful support to the canal-of-two-worlds, you were in strict communion with the thoughts and feelings of the whole of France which was greatly desirous of this work; the generous and noble France which, across all her social classes, was enthusiastic about the digging of the Suez isthmus and supplied her millions and her hands, her intelligence and her energy, her engineers and her workers, her personnel and her materials; finally, France personified, so to speak, in one of her sons, a man magnificently gifted by providence for this wonderful task with his persuasive and homely eloquence, his fiery spirit, his invincible tenacity, his strength and gentleness, his consummate suitability and his truly gallant loyalty, in short, by his - you could almost say - super-human faith in the accomplishment of this gigantic work, derided by the world only to become today the object of its most enthusiastic admiration. Now that the unbelievable has become reality, that the so-called pipe-dream has come true, splendid and complete before our happy eyes, what is going through the mind of he who was behind all we see? Only God knows. I think I can see tears shining in his eyes; I wish I could collect them, because they belong first to France and second to mankind. Let us loudly proclaim this man’s name, the name which now belongs to history where, through a rare privilege of Providence, he enters alive: let us proclaim before the whole earth that France, which is far away but not absent, is happy with and proud of her son. Let us proclaim to very end of the age that just as the New World (discovered in the 15th century) is a permanent reminder to posterity of the name of that man of genius who discovered it, Christopher Columbus, just so the canal between these two continents will be a continuous memorial to the name of a man of the 19th century, a name which I am proud to pronounce on this shore and cry aloud to the four corners of the world, that of Ferdinand de Lesseps. (Long rounds of applause) We may not mention here the names of all those who deserve to be cited along with him; but let us not forget those men both high and low who perished on the glorious field of this enterprise. Let us, on this victorious day, stand in remembrance of those tombs, dear both to their native lands and at the same time to all humanity. Nor will our mourning be tinged with nationalism. For those who died here came from every people on the globe, and our victory is over the earth, the desert, the waves, it is the victory of civilisation. (Applause) And now allow me, before finishing, to thank our illustrious hosts, those who have brought us the delight and done us the honour to be present here today. My Lord, your Apostolic Highness has honoured worthily this great enterprise by coming to be here at the moment when the Adriatic (which washes up on the shores of your Empire) and the Red Sea become one long river, flowing into the Indian Ocean. May the God whom you have just praised in public by kneeling on the tomb of the Saviour of the World, shower His blessings upon you, your lineage and on the great Empire which He has seen fit to place under your care. May all the nations, whose princes and ambassadors ennoble this great day, prosper in peace and concord, and may the greatness of each nation become the greatness of all, thus effecting peace throughout all the World. And to finish this august ceremony in a dignified manner, let us turn our thoughts not just to the image of each country but to the grandeur of the whole of humanity and then above and beyond humanity. Let us lift our souls to the eternal and adorable Divinity who, in His infinite goodness, granted to men the power to build such a prodigious work, a sort of creation within creation, in that it has made the continents of Africa and Asia, which God made one, into two continents. The canal of the two worlds has become the limit of the immensity of these two continents, it has become the immortal and fertile separator of these two worlds. God, all powerful and eternal, God, creator of the world, Father of every creature, bless this new waterway which You have granted to man to make in the bosom of Your creation. Make this river not only a great path to universal prosperity, but also a royal path to peace and justice, to light and immortal truth. May Your divine spirit move on the face of these waters, may it cross, and cross again, from East to West and from West to East. O God, use this waterway to bring men closer together but most of all, bring them closer to You and be their solace in everything both now and unto eternity. (Long applause) (1) Present were: His Royal Highness the Prince of Prussia and Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess Henri of the Netherlands.