USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > South Bend > An illustrated history of St. Joseph's Church, South Bend, Indiana > Part 5
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Mrs. Mathilda Sherlaud, a sister of the deceased, had the order reduced to a neat card like the above, and as a suitable frame for it donated the new St. Joseph's altar in memory of her lamented brother.
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It was found, later on, that the bequest to St. Joseph's church was contained iu a codicil which was appended to the will on the 9th day of February of the same year and which provided that said sum of money may be paid in cash or by the couveyance of land at its appraised value as the trustees appointed may deem fit, provided, however, that it shall not be paid either in cash or iu land uutil each and every bequest, devise and legacy of the will shall have been paid off and discharged. The bequest was paid on the 9th day of February, 1898, $500.00 being paid in cash and the balance by conveyance of real estate adjoining the church property.
THE CHOIR OF ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH
within the last ten or twelve years has not boasted of any tenors with white cravats, "stand up" collars or tight trousers, nor of any lady sopranos with opera glasses in their hauds and chewing gum in their mouths. Humble as their friends and relatives in the pews they siug the praises of God to the best of their ability. and angels can do uo more.
As a rule choir singers are human like everybody else, but because they give their services free of charge their short comings are exposed to greater criticism. If they greet one another on Sundays or communicate to one another the news of the week aud tell au irresistable joke, they are put down as talking in church; if they pass around the peanuts as a sign of a general good understanding or carry a bottle of coffee to clear their throats, they are said to act disrespectfully in church; if they leave the church during the sermon for a drink of cold water or to practice an Ave Maria, they disregard the word of God; if they sing well they are not noticed and if they fail to reach a note, people will not believe that they have a cold: if they give one another a friendly advise they will be reported as having quarrelled, and if they fail to notice a new hat entering the church they will be blamed as having given up all interest in the
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choir. As in the best regulated families mistakes will happen in a church choir and misunderstandings may have to be cleared up. It may happen that a Mr. Charley will pump Gloria and a Miss Mary will play Credo, and that organist must naturaliy be reprimanded. It also has happened that a Mr. Charley had to be told to shut up, as no one but the priest had a right to talk in church, and in self defence Charley had to retort "Then you girls up there must all be priests!" and an evil eye witnessing this will say: "They fight!" Again a singer may wish to give his or her throat a rest for a few weeks or to practice some extra devotions in the pews of the church, and jealous individuals will say: "'So und so has left the choir." Even confessors have gone so far as to say to themselves, when a young lady would accuse herself of talking in church. "The poor child is singing in the choir." And this is, as a rule, the pay which singers will get in a well regulated Catholic church choir.
Ingratitude is, ndeed, the world's reward, but any child that has mastered the principles of music has also learned how to look upon the ways of the world and how to excuse it for not know- ing what it does or says. He or she-as a rule it is the latter- knows and makes proper allowances for the fact that the world at large does not take into consideration the many nights in which choir members brave rain and snow and storm to assemble for a choir practice after a hard day's labor, nor the jealousies to which they are so frequently exposed when they succeed and the railings and the sneers which follow them in the case of a failure; the miserable loft in which they inhale all kinds of odors during winter and in which they ruin every dress by perspiration in summer, that loft which even an occasional church sweeper declares not to be a part of the church and consequently not included in his sweeping contract. They readily condone even this kind of pay at the hands of the world, because they know that Almighty God, in view of their good will not only pardons them for their many short-comings, but will, in spite
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of these, even reward them for having so faithfully interpreted Him 10 His people and His people to Him. For such is the office of a choir in a church.
There is surely nothing more exalting, nothing more con- soling, nothing more sublime and nothing more heaven-like upon earth than the solemn services of the Catholic church. Here man forgets the curse of Adam's sin, here he forgets all his cares and toils; here and here alone he feels that he is more than a beast of burden or a bird of prey; here he forgets all lower instinets and feels himself in attriis domus Domini Sui, in the halls of the house of his Lord. If here the priest acts the part of Christ, the choir's part must be that of the angels that remained faithful and of men that are of a good will. Like the chorus of old the choir represents the congregation. In the name of and for the whole congregation the choir accepts and returns the blessings that are exchanged in the name of Christ; in the name of and for the whole congregation the choir implores the merey of God in the Kyrie eleison; gives glory to God in the highest and wishes peace to men on earth in the Gloria in excelsis and make a solemn and public profession of faith in the Credo. It transports the congregation before the very throne of God and joins the angels in heaven when they sing: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabbaoth, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord the God of hosts! and again in the Agnus Dei it besecches the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world to have mercy on us and to grant us peace which is Christ's own choicest blessing. The part which the choir takes in divine worship here upon earth is indeed. as it were, a practice for the great concert which is to crown the Creation of God.
This is the reason why in Catholic churches the members of a choir cheerfully give their services free of charge. They sing solely for the honor and glory of God and would not allow themselves to be defrauded of their heavenly reward by accepting a paltry pay whether the pay be extended in shining silver or
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in the sounding brass of newspaper puffs. Nor, indeed, do they want to act, like the street parade of a circus, as a drawing card for extraordinary solemnities. The Catholic church has her regular succession of Feasts and Festivals which need no advertising, and her special devotions are in themselves sufficient to attract the people that appreciate them. For fellows that know of no cheaper place to entertain their girls of a Sunday evening or for pleasure-seekers in general the Catholic church makes no provis- ion, and even if an accidental choir should aim tolaunch out in that direction, their efforts, at the best, could never hold their own against the attractions of a theatre or a public dance. No church choir, no more than the proverbial Frenchman, can afford to try to sit between the two chairs, if it does not want to come to grief in one way or in another.
If, however, apart from church services, they wish to indulge in a pastime of their own, a love-feast, for instance, an annual bath in Baron Lake during summer or a sleighride during winter, a Cantata in a public hall or theatre, the fact of their singing in church on Sundays will not debar them from any such innocent amusement.
St. Joseph's church boasts of three choirs. Besides the Sunday choir whose picture appears in this pamphlet there is a boys' choir of about 25 members that attend to all week day services and to all afternoon or evening services, and a little girls' choir that sing hymns during the early mass on Sundays. During the October, May and June devotions of the past few years the boys have covered themselves with glory and have rendered invaluable service to the congregation.
THE SCHOOL
for the last ten years has been under the care of Sisters. After the accounts of the children's fair, their services in the choir, their services at the altar, etc., etc., little remains to be said. These amply show the condition of the school, and the
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school reports of the diocese are in harmony with these facts. To say another word about the school would be only repeating what every member of the congregation witnesses Sunday after Sunday and day after day. St. Joseph's congregation, and for that matter any congregation in the world, has its foundation, its source, its resource, its hope, its pride and its boast in its school. The school is the cradle of the congregation, is its life and is its strength. Without the school it may close its portals today just as well as tomorrow. A patron of the school is a faithful mem- ber of the church, and parents that do not send their children to their own Catholic school have thereby severed their connec- tion with the church also.
The teachers in these years were: Sisters M. Clement, M. Mathurine, M. Clara, M. Gonzague, M. Benedicta, M. Giovanni, M. Isadore, M. Alfreda, M. Rosita, M. Lydia, M. Julia. M. Bianca, M. Hyacintha, M. Valeria, M. Canice, M. Assumption, M. Raphaelia, M. Eudoxia, M. Justa, M Clement No. 2. M. Holy Infancy, M. Fortunata. Five of these died but recently, greatly mourned by the children who had learned to love them and whose prayers followed them beyond the grave.
The present corps consists of: Sisters M. Assumption, M. Clement, M. Clara, M. Fortunata, M. Canice, M. Cunigunda, and Miss Mary O'Connor. The school is attended by 317 children, 161 boys and 156 girls.
THE CITY OF THE DEAD.
An account about a Catholic church will not be complete unless its cemetery is mentioned. There is not a mass said in the church but the faithful departed are remembered, there is not a public devotion held, not a private devotion made in the church but the thoughts of the faithful revert to the dearly- beloved departed.
A mere annual remembrance of the dead on All Souls' Day does not satisfy the piety of either the church or of any of her
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children; and a worldly parade on Decoration Day or a worldly display at funerals the latter must naturally look upon as a sordid scheme to amuse the living at the expense of the dead. "If you are in any way generous with the goods of this earth, by all means give them to me during my life time when I can enjoy them; but after my death, I beseech you, pray for the repose of my soul!" is the appeal of the pulpit of St. Joseph's church in favor of both the living and the dead. That charity which seeketh not her own and which never falleth away even if tongues shall cease commands above all a continual and unselfish remembrance of the souls of the departed in our prayers, and then, in the second place, our deepest respect for their bodies in the graves.
The cemetery, or as it is less appropriately called. the grave-yard, is a sacred spot with all men, whether christian or pagan, civilized or uncivilized. Even pagans who had not hope affectionately clung to the remains of their beloved departed; they had them reduced to ashes so as to be able to keep them in their immediate presence. Christians buried them in consecrated ground along public roads or in much-frequented fields, in the Catacombs and, later on, in churches or in church yards- always in places where they were most likely to meet them often. Yes, the memory of the departed is dear to all men that are deserving of that name
If Christians consign the remains of their departed to the earth, it is, because they firmly believe in the Communion of Saints aud the Resurrection of the Body, and find in these their only hope and consolation. For even as the grain of seed planted in the furrows of the earth greens up again in youthful freshness after a few days, or at least in the coming spring, so also, they know and believe, those far nobler grains of our fellow beings' bodies are entrusted to the earth's dark bosom in the hope that. on the last day. they shall rise again with renewed strength and beauty. From the earth the human body was taken when the
BRO. M. FRANCIS.
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Almighty breathed into it the breath of life, and into the earth it is returned until the Almighty will again and forever unite it to its immortal spirit. "Qmd majis humanum quam hominis exuvias humo reddere, What can there be more humane than to return the remains of man to the ground?"-Goar, Euchol., fol. 542.
CEDAR GROVE
is the name of the cemetery which yearly claims the members of St. Joseph's church at the rate of twenty-five, thirty and forty. It does not belong to St. Joseph's church, nor to any one of the cight Catholic churches of South Bend in particular, but all of them claim it and it is equally dear to them all. It contains by far the largest portion of the bodies of the earliest settlers and claims the present Catholic population of South Bend in rapid succession. There is not a Catholic family in the city that has not some beloved one buried there, and all of them look upon it as the place where they themselves expect to await the General Resurrection.
BROTHER M. FRANCIS, C. S. C.,
one of the original band, was the man to whom Father Sorin entrusted the care of the remains of the dead in 1842 and who attended faithfully to that charge up to the hour of his death which occurred but a few years ago, when both his mantle and his name fell upon his assistant in the days of his old age, the amiable and energetic Bro. W. Francis, C. S. C.
On entering upon his charge Bro. Francis found between the upper Niles road and the river, about a mile north of town the "Old Indian Graveyard." The latter had been blessed by Father Badin, but was now, when Father Sorin's establishment con- siderably changed the public thoroughfares of those days, rather remote, comparatively speaking inaccessible and generally unin- viting. It lacked, according to the Christian, or even the pagan
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ideas, the essential requisite of a graveyard, -it was not likely to be seen or visited often by the living.
Bro. Francis, therefore, at once laid out the present cemetery on Notre Dame avenue, half way between South Bend and Notre Dame, and years later when his favorite evergreens gave it a sightly appearance, he called it Cedar Grove Cemetery. His every thought was in his graveyard; but as funerals in those days were comparatively few, he could be seen, now transferring the remains of the Indians to his new graveyard, now improving and beautifying the same and now again digging the grave for an occasional funeral of the following day. Being a cabinet- maker by trade he also made, with his own hands and in advance, all the sizes of coffins that were likely to be needed. His custom, in the early days, extended far beyond South Bend. It com- prised all the surrounding missions which the Fathers of Holy Cross attended, and up to this day there are corpses brought from great distances to be buried alongside of relatives or friends who died in the early days when Cedar Grove was the only graveyard for Catholics within many miles of Notre Dame.
The work of mercy "to bury the dead," was Bro. Francis' chief aim. The pay for his material or labor was with him a sec- ondary, an infinitesimal matter. His honesty, too, went so far as to lead him to assume the honesty of generations unborn. In this trusting spirit he would sell to applicants lots in his grave- yard without any condition, even as a man would sell a farm or a lot in a town, and for these lots he would give deeds that were uneonditionally recorded in the court house.
It is the tears of surviving friends and relatives-happily but a few-that taught Bro. Francis and Father Sorin and the Fath- ers of the Plenary Council of Baltimore a salutary lesson and led them to safeguard Catholic cemeteries, or single lots therein, against becoming subject to all kinds of barter. A graveyard, let it be repeated, is sacred ground, and whatever the successes or the reverses of a family may be, either materially or spiritu-
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ally, the graves, nay the very bones of its ancestors must not be held responsible for the extravagant debts or the greed, or shall we say, the incessant thirst of any one of its unworthy heirs.
To obviate any snch sad incident or to prevent the recurrence thereof, the various lots for which deeds had been unconditionally given and recorded, were now bought back again by Bro. Francis and resold to the holders thercof with the proviso that they may not be used for any but the originally intended purpose, the graveyard, as a whole and to all outside purposes, thus remaining the property of Notre Dame.
The small corner which formed the Cedar Grove cemetery of 1842 now extends over 25 acres and is being enlarged year after year. It accommodates a population of over twelve thousand souls.
Nor was Cedar Grove the only cemetery which engaged Bro. Francis' attention. He also laid out the cemetery at St. Mary's Academy, where he buried, besides hundreds of others, the great- er part of the sisters that taught the school of St. Joseph's con- gregation in the years gone by, and he attended, at Notre Dame, to the cemetery which he commenced there for the members of his own community. In the latter he buried, besides hundreds of others, the former pastors of this parish who died in the follow- ing order:
Rev. Father Francis Cointet, on Sept. 19, 1854.
Joseph Leveque, on Feb. 13, 1862,
٠٠ 66 P. J. Bourget, on June 12, 1862.
66 Augustin Lemonnier, on Oct. 29, 1874.
.. . 4 Paul E. Gillen, on Oct. 20, 1882. Brother Raymond, on April 30, 1885. Rev. Father Thomas Flinn, on Sept. 23, 1886.
66 Richard Shortis, on Sept. 14, 1887.
.. Louis Neyron, on Jan. 7, 1888.
6. Julius Frere, on May 2, 1892.
Felix Veniard, on May 27, 1893.
Rev. Father Thomas E. Walsh, on July 17, 1893.
.. Alexis Granger, on July 26, 1893.
Edward Sorin, on Oct. 31, 1893.
.. Michael Robinson, on March 17, 1896.
Here also, after burying thousands, Brother Francis was buried himself by his assistant and successor on the 12th day of Nov., 1896. Father Wm. Demers followed him on the 22nd day of December, 1896, and Father Wm. Corby on the 28th day of December, 1897.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace!
CHARLES
B ....--- HIBBERD. PRINTER STATIONS.
SOUTH BEND, INDIANA.
10/19/2009 DT 180810 1 55 00
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