USA > Maryland > A Century of Growth [electronic resource] or, the history of the Church in Western Maryland > Part 11
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them. During the nine years of Father O'Sullivan's pastorate in Westernport, he wrought a wonderful change in Western Maryland. The holy woman, Veronica, meeting our Blessed Saviour on His way to Calvary, presented Him with a towel with which to wipe the sweat and blood from His adorable face. Father O'Sullivan came in contact with the Church of God in this section, and found her face covered with the sweat, spittle and disgrace of drunkenness, and, Veronica-like, he cleansed her heavenly countenance.
He began by picturing the state of affairs; the picture was, unfortunately, only too true. Catholics were in the habit of getting drunk; Catholics gave scandal by getting drunk, and to counteract the dis- grace, even those who did not need the pledge ought to take the pledge. In "thoughts that breathe and words that burn;" he denounced the saloon-keepers; the drunkard-makers squirmed and crouched beneath his denunciation, sarcasm and rage. He learned, from what he saw around him, that the saloon was the foulest blot and most dangerous foe in his parish, and strenuously he nerved himself to raise his people above its contaminating degradation.
All motives, natural and supernatural, were clearly and vigorously set before the congregation. "If you become total abstainers, your health will be better, your hearts will be lighter, your pocket-books will be heavier." Again : "Drunkenness makes it impossible for man to perform his duties to God, to his neighbor and to himself." Vividly he would picture how the
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drunkard is made: "A glass to please a friend ; next, a glass to please himself; then, occasional drunken- ness, habitual drunkenness, disgrace, poverty, disease, insanity, death, damnation."
Going higher, he would paint "St. John the Baptist, a total abstainer; the Holy Ghost tells us so in prophecy. Our Blessed Lord asserts the fulfillment of the prophecy and adds, 'No man born of woman is greater than John the Baptist.' There, total ab- stinence men, is your patron !" He could preach temperance from any feast of the year: "The holy name of Jesus; how that name is blasphemed by drunkenness! The month of the Sacred Heart; how the heart of our Blessed Lord must suffer from the drink evil among Catholics!" He would take the " Lord's Prayer," make a running commentary on it, and preach temperance from every petition. "'Hallowed be Thy name;' how the drunkard blasphemes the holy name of God ! 'Thy kingdom come;' how the scandals of drunkenness prevent the spread of God's kingdom ! 'Thy will be done;' look at the poor, idiotic drunkard; his reason gone, how can he do God's will ? 'Give us this day our daily bread ;' God, in His goodness, gives us wheat enough in this rich country to feed the world. We rot it in dis- tilleries and breweries, and then declare, 'Our chil- dren are crying for bread.'" Or, picturing the passion and death of our Blessed Saviour amid the noon-day darkness of that awful Good Friday, above the sound of earthquake and shouts of the rabble, rang out from
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the parched lips : "'I thirst ;' Jesus Christ suffering an agonizing thirst to atone for your sins of drunkenness." His preaching had the desired effect. A temperance sentiment sprang up, temperance societies were organ- ized, and his great work lives on.
It is only an act of justice to the memory of this really wonderful man to notice here that Father O'Sullivan had organized the total abstinence societies of Allegany County long before the birth of the now well-known "Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America." `He was a pioneer of total abstinence preaching. In his day, he stood practically alone, and human nature well knows that it requires a strong man to take a stand which will leave him standing alone. We are all brave when the war-drum throbs and martial music calls us to battle before the eyes and within hearing of the applause of the world ; when touching elbows with our fellow-soldiers, and clad in all the glorious pomp of war, "we seek the bubble, fame, even at the cannon's mouth ; " but, when a man was wanted to go forth alone, to preach an unpopular crusade against the soul-destroying demon of drink, that one man was found faithful and true in Jeremiah O'Sullivan, a man who would rather make enemies, and did make enemies, by consci- entiously adhering to what he believed to be right, than to win a suicidal popularity by a cowardly con- nivance at what he knew to be wrong.
"Fanatic and dreamer, his enemies cried, When he preached an ideal creed,
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'Till they learned that the men who have changed the world With the world have disagreed ; That the remnant is right when the masses Are led like sheep to the pen ; That the instinct of equity slumbers "Till roused by instinctive men."
This work of temperance has grown marvellously since Father Q'Sullivan's first efforts were made in the grand cause. The Third Plenary Council of Balti- more blessed and eulogized total abstinence organiza- tions, and the great Leo XIII has addressed a letter to the Union, and opened to it the spiritual treasures of the Church of God.
From Westernport Father O'Sullivan was sum- moned by his ecclesiastical superior to St. Peter's Church, Washington City, where his activity, zeal and ability made him widely known. He was consecrated Bishop of Mobile, Alabama, September 20, 1885. He died August 10, 1896.
Bishop O'Sullivan was one of those strong characters which must be well known to be fully appreciated. He grew with acquaintance. Those who liked him, liked him well. Vigor, manliness and straightforward- ness were among his most striking characteristics. In manner, he would impress strangers as being cold and distant, but, in reality, he was warm-hearted and affectionate. In conversation, he spoke slowly, even drawling out his sentences, his eyes generally cast down and half closed. His memory was prodigious; he could remember the names, birthdays and all in-
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cidents of moment in the lives of parishioners, school children, altar boys, and acts of kindness towards himself were never forgotten.
As pastor of a parish, he was just, exceedingly just; an economical financier, close collector, but very kind to the poor. Probably no priest south of Mason and Dixon's line handled more money in the last fifty years than Bishop O'Sullivan, and yet he died a poor man. Every cent that he received had gone where the priest's money ought to go-to works of religion.
As a preacher, Bishop O'Sullivan was very direct. His voice lacked volume, but, on account of its peculiar clearness and something in the personality of the man which always elicited the rapt attention of his audience, he was able, without difficulty, to make himself heard throughout the largest churches. His English was faultless, always choice and ornate; he was sparing of the flowers of rhetoric, though occa- sionally he used strong figures. He was master of the pathetic; this he clearly demonstrated in his funeral oration at the Month's Mind of Very Rev. Edward Brennan, of Cumberland. His idea of the priest's mission in America was exalted, as is evident from his oration over the remains of Father Mc- Nally, at St. Stephen's Church, Washington. He had much of the fascinating beauty of the poet. This is clear from his eulogy on the Rev. Abram J. Ryan, the poet-priest of the "Conquered Banner," where, in exquisite diction, he pictures "the warrior's banner
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taking its flight to greet the warrior's soul." As Bishop of Mobile, he took up the mitre with humility and left it down without a stain.
Another sign of God's special protection over the Westernport parish came in the fortunate appointment of Rev. George W. Devine to the pastorate. Father Devine won the confidence and admiration of his con- gregation at once on account of his piety, zeal and sympathetic disposition. Many of the congregation thought that they saw a resemblance between Father Devine and Father O'Sullivan, and the supposition is not without some foundation. Father Devine, of course, was a younger man. In this they were un- like, but both had the priestly character very visibly developed ; both were of that retiring disposition which combined dignity with graceful ease, grave without coldness, serious without overwhelming solemnity. At the altar there was a noticeable likeness between the two men; both celebrated Mass slowly and very piously, articulating distinctly, but Father Devine had a far better voice for speaking and singing. Both were ascetic in appearance, frail, even spare in build, and about equally endowed with the power of in- spiring that confidence which justifies one in saying, "I would follow him blindfolded."
Father Devine came to Maryland from Providence, Rhode Island. He entered St. Charles' College in the year 1863, and, after finishing the full course of classics, studied philosophy and theology in St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, where he was ordained priest by
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the Rt. Rev. Bishop Becker in the year 1871. It will be noticed that, when Father Devine was pastor of St. Peter's, he was still in the first glow of his priestly fervor. He had been assistant pastor at the Church of St. Mary, Star of the Sea, of Baltimore, before he came to bless, by his presence, the hills and valleys of Allegany County.
While in Westernport, Father Devine reduced the church debt, improved the church property, and took an active interest in the progress of the parish schools. He is especially remembered on account of his watch- fulness over the boys, with whom he was always exceedingly popular. He was eagle-eyed in discerning religious vocations, and his zeal in this particular has given to the archdiocese at least three exemplary young priests from the parish of Westernport. Father Devine remained only a short time in Western Mary- land, but, during that short time, he wrought so potently and successfully that he is justly considered " one of Western Maryland's great pastors."
After leaving Westernport, he became Chancellor of the Archdiocese; he was next appointed pastor of St. Peter's Church, Washington City. At present he is in charge of St. John's large and flourishing con- gregation of Baltimore. Father Devine was happy in Westernport, and left it with regret; and, although brilliant success has crowned his efforts in the various exalted positions which he has since honored, amid the arduous duties of his busy life in the city, he looks back wistfully to his quiet life in Westernport with a feeling akin to regret that he was taken away.
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"No, no! From the streets' rude bustle, From the trophies of mart and stage, I would fly to the woods' low rustle And the meadow's kindly page. Let me dream, as of old, by the river, And be loved for that dream alway, For a dreamer lives forever, And a toiler dies in a day."
The three vocations to the holy priesthood fostered by the zeal of Father Devine have developed into three brilliantly successful priests of whom Western- port may well feel proud. The Rev. Michael J. Riordan, after a thorough course of classics at St. Charles' College, made a lengthy pilgrimage, in pur- suit of knowledge, to the Eternal City. There, in the North American College, he studied philosophy and theology, and was ordained priest in 1888. Fathers Andrew Carey and Timothy Kenny studied classics at St. Charles' College, philosophy and theology at St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore. Both were ordained priests by His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, and sang their first Masses at Westernport-Father Carey on Christmas morning, 1897; Father Kenny, Christmas morning, 1898. Father Riordan is pastor of St. Charles' Church, Pikesville, Md. Father Carey is stationed in Washington, Father Kenny in Baltimore.
The Rev. John M. Jones was appointed the suc- cessor of Father Devine. Father Jones had been a Protestant minister, and was, consequently, a convert to the Church. He is remembered as a cultured
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gentleman, of elegant manners, a fascinating conver- sationalist, of uncommon endowments, a fluent, con- vincing, even eloquent preacher. He was a great traveller; he had visited nearly every interesting spot in Europe. He had probably enjoyed every sensation that can be produced by whirling through space on railroad trains, or tossing on ocean waves in majestic steamers ; and, with exquisite charm, he could relate the storied glories of other lands than ours. He sailed on the Lake of Geneva; he climbed the mountains of Switzerland; he had seen London, where everything is "so serious, so sombre, so real;" he had seen Paris, where everything is "so airy, so graceful, so evanescent." Since his departure from Westernport, Father Jones has continued to spend much of his time travelling abroad; but wherever he may be, whether enjoying the breeze on the Wicklow Mount- ains, or listening to church-bell music floating on the soft Italian air, or climbing pyramids half covered in Egyptian sands, many a warm-hearted friend at home will follow him with the prayer that God's blessing may go with him every step of the journey of life. Father Jones is remembered as a man of fortune, whose pocket-book was never closed to the worthy poor.
The Rev. Michael J. Brennan became Westernport's next pastor. He paid the last of the church debt, and was soon promoted to the pastorate of St. Patrick's Church, Cumberland.
In coming to speak of Rev. Peter R. Weider, one of the most universally popular priests of Allegany
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County, we are reminded of an old legend found amid the dust-covered pages of French tragedy. On one occasion, there appeared before a certain tribunal a surprisingly brilliant youth, of great promise, whose forehead was tattooed with the strange device, " Never a chance." Thus, as a book bears its title, he carried above his eyes the law of his life, and subsequent events proved this curious writing to be cruelly true. It was in vain that his life exhibited talents, virtues, graces. A nightmare of disappointment besieged his soul; his life was feverish activity and his death a heartless tragedy. We pause, and, in the borrowed words of the Avon bard, we ask, "Can such things be, and overcome us like a summer cloud without our special wonder ?"
Father Weider was born in Baltimore, June 20, 1856, from devoted, Catholic parents. He imbibed, from his very infancy, that strong faith which charac- terized his life. In September, 1874, he entered St. Charles' College to begin his preparatory studies for the holy priesthood. As a college student, he is re- membered as a kind, cheerful, popular young man. He was fond of outdoor sports, taking interest in every form of college amusement. He was studious and successful, and, in June, 1877, graduated near the head of his class. He entered St. Mary's Semi- nary, of Baltimore, where he prosecuted his studies of philosophy and theology, receiving the baccalaureate degree of theology after his second year of study.
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Father Weider was ordained priest December 17, 1881, by His Grace, Archbishop Gibbons, and sang his first Mass on the following Christmas, his father and mother receiving Holy Communion from his priestly hands. The happiest day of his life is over, and now begins the work of the new priest. How much at stake for God and for souls ! How much at stake for time and for eternity!
Father Weider's first appointment was to the pas- torate of Hancock, in Washington County, where he remained nearly four years. In October, 1885, he came to Westernport as successor to Father Brennan. The ten years of his pastorate in Westernport were years of great devotedness, wonderful activity and extraordinary popularity, deserved and unstained. He improved the church property by constructing a strong stone wall and iron railing protection between the church and the Potomac River. He built a much-needed road to the cemetery, frescoed the church and purchased the new stained-glass windows.
Everyone loved Father Weider. He was a magnetic, fascinating man; but now that he is dead, the best summing up in retrospect of the man and the priest is contained in the three words, " Poor Father Weider!" He was naturally adapted to the priesthood; a man, apparently, of great, good sense, of sound judgment- that sense and judgment unclouded by selfishness. He was a man of great frankness, great openness of character, honest, cheerful, joyous in disposition, almost boyishly happy. These traits were admirably
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adapted to sustain, as natural helps, the priest in the awful solitude of his after life; and, nevertheless, his best friends, those who admired him most, will greet every mention of his name with "Poor Father Weider!"
During the fourteen years of his priesthood Father Weider was alone. From the day he walked forth joyously from St. Mary's Seminary, with the holy chrism of ordination scarcely dry on his consecrated hands, to the day that his lifeless body was carried back to St. Michael's Church and placed before the very altar at which he had sung his first High Mass, Father Weider had never had an opportunity to enjoy, for any continuous period of time, the com- panionship of a brother priest. "Poor Father Weider!"
The life of the priest is not a natural life, neither is it an unnatural life; it is, above all, a supernatural life, and it is only the supernatural element in Father Weider's life that could sustain him during his four- teen lonely years as a country priest, and strengthen him against interior desolation.
With these preliminaries, we may form a more accurate estimate of Father Weider's peculiar charac- ter and his singular success. It is certain that it has not been the lot of any other priest in Allegany County since Father O'Sullivan to command the de- voted admiration of so many and so widely-differing men as Father Weider. What, then, we may ask, was the source of his popularity ? In the first place, it must be attributed to his good, kind heart. “ Kind-
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ness is the overflowing of self upon others; we put others in the place of self, and we treat them as we would wish to be treated ourselves." Father Weider's kindness branched out in every direction ; he studied the ailments of the body as well as of the soul. To the sick he was physician as well as priest; to the unfortunate, bleeding victim of a railroad accident, he was more welcome than the surgeon; to the poor man, his purse was open, and the fallen he was always ready to lift up. He well understood that the nearest road to the parent's heart is through the child, and he was by disposition kindness itself to the little ones, whether in the catechism classes or the parochial schools. His kind heart, therefore, was the main source of his popularity, but his bright mind was of much assistance to him. He was certainly a brilliant man, his brilliancy appearing probably at its best in his eloquence. But Father Weider's elo- quence was not of the persuasive kind; it was essentially poetic, without method, without argument, soaring grandly upward and onward, rich in pictures and images, chosen from a world of beauty little visited by common minds. It was that eloquence which makes one listen and dream and admire and say "how well he speaks," but it had none of the let-us-march-against-Philip strength. Occasionally there was a great deal of heart in his preaching, particu- larly in his funeral orations; this, however, was the exception, not the rule. He was a brilliant preacher, though not a persuasive one. Father Weider, in a
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sense, was a great student; his mind was well stored with general information, his memory was quick in receiving impressions and accurate in recalling them. He could speak for an hour, quoting dates, facts and texts with perfect accuracy and without the least sign of hesitation. He was neither deep nor original in thought, but, in the ex- pression of his thought, he was often original, sometimes surprisingly so. In appearance, Father Weider was a man of about the average height, well built, without being fleshy; the muscular system was remark- ably developed; his forehead was broad, his hair heavy and jet black; in walk and REV. PETER R. WEIDER. gesture, he was quick and nervous, his glance was penetrating; his temperament, which was always peculiar, before his death became melancholy and indefinably sad.
It may be a question which only specialists could answer with certainty, whether or not Father Weider's system, before his death, had undergone that degree of nervous exhaustion which produces hypochondria
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or melancholia. The question certainly cannot be settled here, but, in reference to the very supposition, it may be prudently asserted that the attitude of persons in general towards those diseases which have for their crowning symptom the disturbance of the mind is at once extraordinary and unreasonable. This, we believe, is especially true when it is a question of the relations existing between a congregation and their pastor. A priest may have lung trouble and cough, heart trouble which holds his life in momentary jeopardy, or a hundred other ailments, without feeling that there is a shadow of cause for secrecy or re- proach; on the contrary, he has the sympathy of everyone in his sufferings. But let the cerebral action be interfered with, let the mind become in the least disturbed, at once profound secrecy suggests itself, and an air of mystery accompanies every mention of the afflicted one's name.
This tendency has its reasonable explanation. The erudite Bishop Spalding eloquently remarks : "How divine is not man's apprehensive endowment! When we see beauty fade, the singer lose her charm, the performer his skill, we feel no commiseration ; but when we behold a noble mind falling to decay, we are saddened, for we cannot believe that the God- like and immortal faculty should be subject to death's power." Yet, much as we may regret it, we are obliged to admit . that worry, overwork, grief, dis- appointment brooded over in solitude, gnaw at the brain, and the result may be the unbalancing of the
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reason, the destruction of the relation of ideas, and a gloomy depression which cannot be shaken off.
During the few months immediately anterior to his death, Father Weider manifested unmistakable symp- toms of depression. His habitually demonstrative disposition would become suddenly melancholy; again, he would unexpectedly assume what has been pictur- esquely called "a delirium of grandeur," taking an optimistic view of everything. He would talk of promising investments in real estate, visionary schemes for making the poor man happy or of converting thousands of souls.
Father Weider died in Baltimore, October 12, 1895. He had gone to the city to consult specialists about the state of his health. He received the last rites of the Church from the hands of Rev. Father Thomas, rector of the Cathedral. His death is one of the saddest incidents in the history of the Church in Western Maryland. When he died a star was blotted out-a star which, naturally speaking, should have con- tinued to shine in splendor far down in the twentieth century. Everyone regretted his untimely death ; but, amid the feelings of universal regret, a chiding voice intruded itself, saying, in the oft-quoted words of a philosopher, "The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, would have been kind."
" Under the broad and starry sky, Dig his grave and let him lie ;
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Glad did he live and gladder die, And he laid him down with a will.
" This be the verse you grave for me, Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home from the hill."
The Rev. Joseph M. Walter was appointed temporary pastor to succeed Father Weider. Father Walter was a sick man when he came to Westernport and a dying man when he left; it may be said with truth that he had never been strong. On account of failing health, he was obliged frequently to abandon his studies, both at college and in the seminary. He travelled in Europe, endeavored to prosecute his studies at the American College in Rome, but his health gave way and he was compelled to return home.
Notwithstanding all these trials and disappointments, he persevered until he bent all adverse circumstances to his purpose, and was finally ordained priest by His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, January 29, 1892. His first appointment was as pastor of Clarksville, in Howard County. Here he soon found himself un- equal to the hard work, and he was obliged, re- luctantly to resign his mission into the hands of a stronger man. He came to Westernport buoyed up by the hope that the mountain air would strengthen him, but only to be again disappointed. He died of pulmonary consumption, soon after leaving the mountains, March 20, 1898.
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