For 38 years, the Roman Catholic Laymen’s Retreat League of Philadelphia has held an annual retreat for men near the little Pennsylvania town of Malvern. So popular have these spiritual refreshers become that last year the league held them in installments for a total of 11,882 men.

“Come unto Me”

San Inigo, founded by Jesuits, is the latest unit in a fast developing chain of “retreats,” which soon may gird Catholic America from coast to coast.

The pattern for these Catholic retreats is Mount Manresa, on Staten Island. For years this lay-monastery has provided spiritual haven for the harassed souls of business men. But already a Philadelphia institution, the Men of Malvern, has perhaps surpassed it in favor. The Philadelphians have consecrated to spiritual re-creation 100 acres just outside the city. They have improved a choice suburban landscape with a magnificent chapel, a large comfortable retreat house. The genius of inauguration was supplied by Father Terence Shealy, first director of retreats in the U. S.

“The widespread desire for a deeper life of the spirit,” “the instinct for interior discipline,” …