USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Century of Catholicism in western Massachusetts; being a chronicle of the establishment, early struggle, progress and achievements of the Catholic church in the five western counties of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin > Part 16
USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Century of Catholicism in western Massachusetts; being a chronicle of the establishment, early struggle, progress and achievements of the Catholic church in the five western counties of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin > Part 16
USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Century of Catholicism in western Massachusetts; being a chronicle of the establishment, early struggle, progress and achievements of the Catholic church in the five western counties of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin > Part 16
USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Century of Catholicism in western Massachusetts; being a chronicle of the establishment, early struggle, progress and achievements of the Catholic church in the five western counties of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin > Part 16
USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Century of Catholicism in western Massachusetts; being a chronicle of the establishment, early struggle, progress and achievements of the Catholic church in the five western counties of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin > Part 16
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This congregation came to the United States in 1816, at the request of the Bishop of New Orleans, and rendered yeoman service to the infant Church in the Mississippi Valley. Gradually, it answered the appeal of the bishops in the east, took charge of seminaries and colleges and carried on its mis- sionary activities from new centers. Today, its motherhouse is at Germantown, Pennsylvania. while its eastern mission bands radiate from homes at Germantown and Niagara, as well as Spring- field.
The members of this congregation, called Vin- centians, from their founder, are also called Lazarists, from the Priory of St. Lazare, at Paris, which became the headquarters of St. Vincent de Paul himself, during his lifetime.
The Congregation of St. Paul of the Gross
V THE invitation of Rt. Rev. Thomas M. O'Leary, Bishop of Springfield, the Congregation of St. Paul of the Cross came to our diocese in 1922, and, the fol- lowing year, began the construc- tion of the noble edifice in Spanish mission style which looks down from Monastery Heights upon West Springfield. The new building is a home to which the Passionist Fathers may retire for needed rest after their strenuous exertions on the missions, as well as a novitiate where at present twenty-six novices are preparing for their life-work. The order of exer- cises for those at the monastery includes the chant- ing of the office in choir, while all rise at night for Matins. In all, five hours of each day are devoted to devotions, while there is a regular daily routine of study and other duties.
Most striking is the characteristic garb of this congregation. The habit is black, but each bears over his heart a white Sacred Heart on a black background. The Heart is surmounted by a Cross, and, over it, are the words: "The Passion of Jesus Christ." Beneath the inscription are three
nails, interlaced, placed within the Heart, to remind us that Our Saviour's Passion must ever be a sacred memory in our heart of hearts. This emble- matic reminder of the Passion is the direct result of a vision in which Our Lady appeared to St. Paul of the Cross. She was garbed in black, wore this emblem of the Passion over her heart, and, after commanding him to form a new congrega- tion, added : "Its members shall be clothed as you see me clothed, and they shall continually mourn the Passion and Death of my Son." All who have attended a Passionist mission and are familiar with the large crucifix on the improvised platform and the impressive apostrophe which closes each service, know how well that command is being car- ried out by a congregation which, ten years ago, ob- served the second centennial of its establishment.
Besides giving missions and retreats to clergy and laity, the sons of St. Paul of the Cross opened the first retreat house in our diocese, for laymen, though annual retreats for laymen had been held at Holy Cross College, and at "The Elms," in Chicopee, for some years previous. The retreat house bears the name of Bishop O'Leary, who cordially approved of its inauguration that the men of his diocese might, under its fostering direction, "form themselves into a body of apostolic, enlightened and zealous Catholics, who will take an active interest in all parochial and diocesan activities, and be- come the effective leaders that are demanded by the development of the Church." Our far- sighted Chief Shepherd knows that the lay apostolate will amount to little without the lay leadership which commands respect and con- fidence, and the spiritual molding of that lay leadership is largely the work of the lay retreat.
In the comparatively few years of its existence, the Bishop O'Leary Retreat House, which accommodates fifty at one time, has completed one hundred and twenty- five retreats, at which the average attend- ance has been thirty-five-a grand total of over
Airplane View, Passionist Monastery of Our Mother of Sorrows, West Springfield.
Photo by L. W. Bell
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CHOIR CHAPEL, PASSIONIST MONASTERY OF OUR MOTHER OF SORROWS
forty-three hundred. Thus far. the groups have organized by societies, professions. etc .. but hence- forth they are to organize by parishes, and Father O'Connell and Father Dolan of West Springfield were the first to personally conduct groups of their parishioners to begin this new order. of which Bishop O'Leary officially approves.
The Passionist Congregation, over two centu- ries old, has been in America since 1852, and is approaching the close of its first decade in our diocese. The present personnel of the West Spring- field monastery, of which the official title is Monas- tery of the Mother of Sorrows, consists of Father
Hilarion O'Rourke. rector; Father Coleman Byrne, his assistant ; Father Alexander Crocker, master of novices, and Father Nilus McAllister, director of retreats, and the following mission- ary priests, whose names have become familiar in many of our parishes: Fathers Norbert, Augustine, Bonaventure, Bede, Linus. Cletus, Leonard, Casimir. Oswald. Raymond, Frederick, Fulgentius and Alban. Incidentally, Father Nor- bert has been preaching missions for half a century, and still preaches with the zeal and vigor of youth. He is the monastery's "grand old man of the missions."
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DOMINICAN MONASTERY OF THE MOTHER OF GOD, WEST SPRINGFIELD
The Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Rosary
N THE fall of 1922, the Dominican & Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary accepted the invitation of Right Reverend Bishop O'Leary to open the first cloister of a con- templative order in our diocese, and began humbly in a modest home on Ingersoll Grove, Springfield. The new foundation was blessed with so many vocations that it soon outgrew its original quarters and was fortunate enough to acquire the spacious and secluded Nye estate, in West Springfield. There, on September 8, 1926, fifth anniversary of his con- secration, Right Reverend Bishop O'Leary estab- lished perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacra-
ment, together with episcopal enclosure, thus giv- ing to his diocese the blessed intercession of those whose Eucharistic prayers and whose recitation of the Holy Rosary never cease.
Though cloistered, and hence never appearing beyond the confines of their monastery, these good sisters lead a life of endless industry within the precincts of their sacred enclosure. They make beautiful vestments and banners, supply altar breads to many parishes, do exquisite work in painting and embroidery, and, in general, are skilled in whatever tends to beautify the services of our church liturgy. Readers of The CATHOLIC MIRROR are familiar with the announcements of novenas and devotions at this Dominican Monas-
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tery of the Mother of God, in which all their benefactors are continually remembered in the decades of the Rosary that knows no ceasing and the Eucharistic petitions that know no in- terruption.
Where seven Dominican Nuns arrived in Springfield, in 1922, forty-one now serve our diocese, living sanctuary lamps before God's altar throne. Many of these fervent and generous souls were recruited from the womanhood of our own diocese. Because of this rapid growth, calling for the immediate purchase of more commodious quarters, which were found in the Nye property, on Riverdale Street, and the expense of making the Nye house suitable for a cloistered religious home. the Dominican Sisters have assumed an in- debtedness which would appall anyone except a religious community. A Dominican auxiliary, composed of lay men and women, organized for their aid. helps to relieve them financially.
At Christmas, 1928, our Holy Father, Pius XI, conferred upon this young community the privileges of papal enclosure, entailing the obliga- tion of solemn vows. This enclosure, the strictest known in the Church, and granted to only seven other communities in the United States, was ap- plied to their monastery on August 4, 1930, the feast of St. Dominic, patronal feast of the Domini- can Order, and on this occasion all the sisters who had already made their final simple vows pro- nounced solemn vows. Henceforth all final vows made at the Dominican Monastery will be sol- emn. Springfield's contemplative sisters are now "nuns" in the canonical sense of the word, and, as the expression "papal enclosure" implies, in direct dependence, through our Right Reverend Bishop, on the Holy See. Their postulants have from six months to a year of probation before receiving the habit of the Dominican Order, and another year before making their first vows, which are tem- porary and simple vows. After this profession, three years must elapse before the sisters pro- nounce their solemn vows, which are not only per- petual, but irrevocable. Except for the chosen few who, on rare occasions, may go forth to establish similar communities in other localities, these sisters will never leave their West Springfield monastery. They will serve our diocese always by their lives of prayer and penance.
This Dominican house, of course, is a branch of the great Dominican Order of Preachers, of which
St. Dominic was the founder, early in the thir- teenth century, and its sisters wear the historic garb of all Dominicans. Any sketch of Dominican activities must needs carry us back, for its begin- nings, to the eldest daughter of the Church of God, France, and to the time when the Church was writhing and groaning under the most baneful and insidious heresy that ever threatened her worldly existence. It was a crisis in the history of Christian faith, a vital crisis in the history of human education. Looking back from the summit of the centuries, there is one stirring memory to it all : God had never abandoned His Church in the past, He was not to abandon it then.
When conditions were most critical, the Provi- dence of God led the saintly Dominic from his native Spain to Languedoc, fairest of the provinces of France, center of the destructive Albigensian activities, and heartsore from their ravages. There he dedicated his God-given talents to the crushing of this monster heresy. For a year and more after his coming, in 1205, he preached in the churches and the market places, but God gave no evident sign of success. The task seemed hopeless when, tradition tells us, our Blessed Mother appeared to St. Dominic, revealed to him her Rosary, and commissioned him to explain its beautiful devo- tion to a deluded people. It was her testament, as Queen of Heaven, to an unhappy world, a proof of her undying interest in the great body of Christians who look up to her as their Mother.
The first fruit of Dominic's work was the con- version of a number of women, who had been the most active propagandists of the Albigensians. To preserve their faith from all antagonistic in- fluences, he procured from the Bishop of Toulouse the Church of Notre Dame of Prouille, and on the adjacent land he had a modest dwelling hastily built, as a refuge for his first converts. This became the cradle of the future Dominican Order. Dominic wished to associate these fervent souls with the great work which, though ripening in his mind, had not yet blossomed into life. Hence he formed them into a community of cloistered nuns, to plead for the world they had left and to do penance for it in a life hidden with Christ in God. So, in 1206, the Second Order of St. Dominic, as it is now called, came into being, first in point of time of the three orders founded by him, antedat- ing by ten years the foundation of the Friars Preachers, which took place in 1216, and was soon
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followed by the institution of the Third Order, composed at first exclusively of lay persons in the world, many of whom later formed themselves into communities devoted to active works of charity, and known today as the "active" Domini- can Sisters.
Thus, we see that the Second Order of Domini- cans has been essentially contemplative since the days of St. Dominic, who used to call its members the Sisters Preachers, because by their prayers and their penances they contributed to the success of the labors of the Friars, and so to the salvation of souls. The Dominican Nuns are here in the Diocese of Springfield as the lineal descendants of those first contemplative nuns organized by the apostolic Dominic, who endowed our Christian life with the most affectionate and powerful of all the devotions which bind us to the Mother of God, her Most Holy Rosary. They are called Nuns of the Perpetual Rosary by reason of their special end-to form a living, perpetual Rosary. In con- vents of the Perpetual Rosary, there is always, at all hours of the day and night, at least one nun kneeling in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament and reciting the Rosary.
Our Right Reverend Bishop invited the Domini- can Nuns to our diocese to give us one cloistered community whose vocation it would be to pray for the diocese, its clergy, its laity, its religious, its manifold needs and works, and by their holy lives, to avert God's wrath. Our Dominican Nuns have labored in this way in our midst for nearly a
decade of years, maintaining perpetual adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament; offering in the Divine Presence their choral recitation of the Divine Office, beginning each night at midnight, their nocturnal Adoration of the Blessed Sacra- ment, their Rosaries, their mental prayers, their Communions, their fasts, their austerities, their continual meditation on the holy mysteries of the Rosary, through the almost unbroken silence of their days of labor, together with their endeavor to practice more and more the virtues inculcated therein-offering in the Divine Presence their lives of ceaseless prayer and heroic virtue for the needs of all mankind, and in a special manner for the clergy and the people of the Diocese of Spring- field.
Like all new foundations, particularly contem- plative foundations, the Dominican Nuns are hampered in the full realization of their mission by financial burdens. A few small benefactions made possible their establishment, both on Inger- soll Grove and in West Springfield. With the earnings of brush, needle, pen, altar-bread ma- chine, supplemented by the charitable and thank offerings of the faithful, they manage with diffi- culty, to house, clothe and feed themselves and to maintain the diocesan altar of perpetual ado- ration. Linked with their cloistered mission of prayer and penance they have also an active apos- tolate-to increase in the lives of our laity true devotion to our Eucharistic Lord and to Mary's holy Rosary.
VIEW OF THE DOMINICAN MONASTERY FROM RIVERDALE STREET The high fence seen at the reader's left marks the limits of the Sisters' outdoor cloister.
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SAINT STANISLAUS NOVITIATE-SHADOWBROOK
The Jesuit Novitiate of Saint Stanislaus
THOUGH the Jesuit Fathers were the first religious teachers in our diocese, their novitiate at Lenox is of comparatively recent origin, and serves as a training place for the relatively new province established when New England was severed from the New York-Maryland division of the Order. In reality, Shadowbrook lies partly in Stockbridge and partly in Lenox. This splendid property, in the heart of the health-giving Berk- shire hills, was acquired from the heirs of Andrew Carnegie, in 1922, and remodelled to meet the demands of a novitiate. There, postulants, or new- comers, pass a short period of probation until the receiving of the habit, whereupon they become novices, and enter their preparation for their Jesuit labors.
There are two groups of novices : the scholas- tics, who are preparing for classroom work and ordination to the priesthood, and the lay brothers. who desire to devote their lives to God's service, without entering Holy Orders. In prayer and study of the rule, the preparatory periods of both are similar, but in other respects progress along dif- ferent lines.
The scholastic novices spend their first two years in spiritual exercises, manual labor and cer- tain studies whose object is to prevent mental retrogression. They then take their vows, and pass
Marble Altar in Chapel at Shadowebrook Novitiate.
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NORTH ENTRANCE, SHADOWBROOK
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, SHADOWBROOK
on to another two years, called the juniorate, in which they study intensively Latin, Greek and English classics, as well as history, pedagogy and modern languages. In a word, they study what they are going to teach, and how to teach it. To these are added courses in debating, elocution, and special lectures. The Latin language is spoken, except in periods of recreation.
The lay brothers, ordinarily, have not had the preliminary education of the scholastics, and so prepare to look after the temporal interests of the Order. Their previous training as farmers, ma- chinists, cooks, blacksmiths, etc., is developed, and they take charge later, as they do at Shadowbrook, of the infirmary, the kitchen, the heating plant, the gardens and similar departments. The lay brothers take the ordinary vows of the Society of Jesus, and share in the merits of its good works
equally with the scholastics and professed fathers. Many of them have attained heroic sanctity, and one of their number has been canonized.
The first head of Shadowbrook was Rev. J. Harding Fisher, S.J., whose present successor is Rev. William A. Rice, S.J., assisted by Rev. Peter J. Dolin, S.J., as administrator, Rev. John J. Smith, S.J., as Master of Novices, and Rev. John A. Madden, S.J., as assistant Master of Novices ; Rev. Thomas F. White, S.J., as Treas- urer and spiritual Father, and Rev. Cornelius A. Murphy, S.J., as Assistant Treasurer. The present year, the household at Shadowbrook numbers ten priests, forty-nine juniors, ten lay brothers, sixty- eight scholastic novices, thirteen lay brother novices and four lay brother postulants.
From Shadowbrook the novices go to Weston for a three years' course in Philosophy. Both at Shadowbrook and Weston there is instruction in the composition and de- livery of sermons, which are given at meals. On completion of their studies at Weston, the Jesuits are prepared to enter upon their active life in the classroom, at Holy Cross, Boston Col- lege or Boston College High School. Since the New England Province of the Jesuits was separated from the New York-Maryland division, the Fathers of this section teach only in the New Eng- land branch of the order.
This view of St. Stanislaus' Novitiate, from the south, re- veals the sise and beauty of the building.
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SAINT HYACINTH'S SEMINARY, GRANBY
Franciscan Seminary of Saint Hyacinth
HE youngest of our religious foundations is Saint Hyacinth's Seminary, at Granby, solemnly dedicated by Bishop O'Leary in June, 1927, as a house of philo- sophical and theological studies for the Franciscan Fathers, Minor Conventuals. This establishment is the major seminary of St. Anthony's Province, in which the Fathers are of Polish birth or extraction. Though the Granby house of studies is of recent origin, the Franciscan Fathers have labored in our diocese since the dawn of the present century, and at various times have had charge of Polish parishes in Webster and Ludlow, in addition to their pres- ent parishes in Holyoke and Chicopee.
This Polish province of St. Anthony was organ- ized about twenty-five years ago, to do missionary work among our Polish populations. There was an immediate demand for the services of the Fathers, wherever their people had settled, from New England to the Mississippi. They were called upon to take charge of parishes, to conduct
missions, to open schools, and they met every re- quest cheerfully and successfully.
With the increase of vocations which followed inevitably upon the multiplication of institutions under Franciscan auspices, the need of a seminary
Altar in chapel of seminary, brought from shrine of St. Francis at Assisi, where it stood for over a century.
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became more and more vital. When the oppor- tunity presented itself to obtain the large piece of land in the open country at Granby, situated a convenient distance from several centers of popu- lation, the Franciscans availed themselves of it, and, with Bishop O'Leary's hearty endorsement, they erected the present roomy and sightly house of studies. It accommodates seventy-five students, together with the Fathers and lay brothers. The present personnel is a student body of sixty, a faculty composed of six fathers, and four lay brothers, who look after the manual labor about the premises.
The altar in the pretty college chapel has an interesting history. For more than a century, it stood at the shrine of the Order's founder, St. Francis, at Assisi, and so forms a tangible link between our Springfield foundation and the birth- place of the great Franciscan household. The library, too. has many rare and valuable volumes, which date back to the very beginnings of the printer's art.
The Fathers at Granby have been of great assistance, especially to the Polish flocks of our diocese, but have always shown a willingness to assist other pastors when occasions of sudden need arise. The present faculty at Granby includes the following Franciscan Fathers: Rev. Giles Kacz- marek. Superior O.M.C .; Rev. George Roskwi- talski, O.M.C .; Rev. Dominic Szymanski, O.M.C .; Rev. Isidore Pidnch, O.M.C .; Rev. Louis Glinski, O.M.C .; Rev. Maurice Bora, O.M.C.
Besides its home at Granby and the parishes which its members conduct, the Franciscans have
a lay branch, called the Third Order, which flourishes in such centers as Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee. In Holyoke, the Third Order has its headquarters in the Mater Dolorosa Parish and Sacred Heart Parish and in Chicopee, in St. Stanislaus Parish ; while in Springfield it recently began a flourishing life with five hundred mem- bers, at St. Michael's Cathedral.
The Tertiaries trace their origin to St. Francis, himself, and the organization thus has enjoyed an unbroken existence of over seven hundred years. Today, it numbers more than three hun- dred thousand members in the whole world, one- third of whom are in the United States. It aims to inculcate moderation in all things, and to spread the practice of Christian charity. Its obli- gations do not bind under pain of grievous sin, but depend on the good will of members striving for the ideals of their secular callings, a rule of religious life.
As adapted by the late Pope Leo XIII to our modern needs, the rule includes : the wearing of the small scapular, the avoiding of extremes of fashion, whether in cost or in style, the shunning of dangerous plays, dances and amusements, fru- gality at table, grace before and after meals, monthly reception of the sacraments, the daily recitation of the office, loyalty to the duties of home life, especially in the matter of good example, protecting those under one's care from bad company and harmful influences, furthering domestic peace, avoiding angry and abusive speech, practicing daily examination of con- science, monthly attendance at meetings, visiting members who are ill, and offering the Rosary and Holy Communion for de- parted tertiaries.
These practices add but little to what any right living Catholic would desire to follow. They enable all, however, to be influenced by the good example of each, and so systematize and super- naturalize these simple Christian duties as to reduce them to rule and order. The Third Order of St. Francis shares in the spiritual benefits, not only of its own devotional exercises and good works, but also of the devoted lives and good works of thirty thousand Francis- can friars and twenty thousand Fran- ciscan nuns.
Library, Franciscan Seminary of Saint Hyacinth, Granby.
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AIRPLANE VIEW OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS, WORCESTER
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ST. JOSEPH'S MEMORIAL CHAPEL
College of the Holy Gross Worcester, Massachusetts
Conducted by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus
HE College of the Holy Cross was founded in the year 1843, by the Rt. Rev. Benedict Joseph Fenwick, second Bishop of Bos- ton, and is the oldest Catholic College in New England. It had long been a cherished desire of Bishop Fenwick to establish in his diocese, which then included the City of Worcester, an institu- tion for the higher education of Catholic young men. In bringing about the realization of this desire, he was aided by the Rev. James Fitton, who had, as early as 1838, established the Semi- nary of Mount St. James on the hill which now bears that name, but was then known as Paka- choag, "Hill of Pleasant Springs." This institu- tion, with its sixty acres of land, Father Fitton
presented to the Bishop in 1843, and on this site the distinguished prelate determined to build his college. He gave it the name of his cathedral, with the motto and emblem of the Boston dio- cese-a cross in the heavens, as it appeared to the Emperor Constantine, with its historic legend.
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