USA > New York > Niagara County > History of the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels : Niagara University, Niagara County, N.Y., 1856-1906 > Part 13
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Those among us who had not previously met the new Bishop soon learned to appreciate the qualities inherent in the man, admiring his zeal, his gentleness, yet withal his episcopal vigor, which leaves it evident to all observers that he alone assumes responsibility for the management of his diocese. From the foot of his newly acquired throne he declared himself all to all that he may gain all to Christ, and the loyal support which he has received from every quarter of his
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diocese since that apostolic declaration indicates how Catholics in the See of Buffalo, notwithstanding their cosmopolitan character, are a practical unit in holding up the hands of their anointed leader.
On Thursday, October 15th, the Right Rev. Bishop paid his first visit to Niagara. To quote from the Index: " From the moment of his arrival amid the din of the 'Varsity huzzas, and the music of our invincible band, until we waved farewell, Niagara was an elysium of welcome and praise for our distinguished visitor. It is needless to say we are delighted with our new Bishop. We call him ours because we are very intimately connected with his diocese, and now that he has expressed his deep interest in our work and his love for student life, together with his desire to be often in our midst, we feel, as he has won our hearts, that we have become closely intimate with him.
" The programme of welcome participated in by the collegians and seminarians was one as is usual on such occasions, and the trend of our feeling is expressed in the published addresses elsewhere in our columns. But the one thing which aptly showed our loyal feelings towards our new Bishop was the real genuine student outburst of applause which greeted Father Likly's happy introduction of our esteemed guest. Nowhere, indeed, are degrees of appreciation better shown than in a college audience. Our representatives, in voicing our sentiments, received each his due. But when the Bishop arose to address us for the first time, round after round of heartiest applause echoed through the hall. We are sure it was appreciated by the good Bishop who understands so well the spirit of collegians; and if we judge from the Bishop's happy expression, this sincere reception made him feel that he was among the most devoted of friends.
" Buffalo's new Bishop possesses a pleasing personality. His very presence and speech show him a man of high sanctity and sim- plicity. As a lover of learning and as a tremendous worker he was noted long before he assumed the duties of the episcopate. His heart is wholly in the cause of Christian education, and as he talked to us of student perfection we felt that his interest in our work will spur us on to retain the high place he holds for us in his estimation of our graduates and of our institution's efforts to fit her sons for their avocations. His words of counsel, of warning, and of encour- agement are already deep in our hearts. In expressing his great interest in our welfare, his love for our work, and in his promise to be always with us at least in spirit, we feel we have a friend and advo- cate. We trust our progress in the future will elicit the same ap- proval that the past has done from Bishop Colton's generous words.
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" We feel we have the sympathies of our zealous chief pastor and thank him for his coming amongst us - for his words of encourage- ment, and especially for giving us the pleasure of knowing and hon- oring him."
The following programme was rendered at the reception tendered to Bishop Colton in Alumni Hall at 8 P. M.
PROGRAMME
Recreation March,
Entre .
Rieger
N. U. Band
Crown Of Beauty,
Waltzes
Bonnet
N. U. Orchestra
Collegians' Address,
Mr. H. Gerlach
Vacal Solo, .
"Then You'll Remember Me"
Balfo
Mr. John Flanagan
Seminarians' Address,
Mr. A. Veit
Soko,
Moorish March
Lampe
N. U. Orchestra
Faculty Address,
Rev. L. A. Grace, C. M.
Viola Waltzes,
N. U. Orchestra
Presentation, .
Very Rev. W. F. Likly, C. M.
Reply,
Rt. Rev. Charles H. Colton, D. D.
Grand Finale,
ยท
"Old Niagara"
Rieger
Sung by whole assembly, accompanied by N. U. Band
Music under Direction of J. Ernest Rieger, Music Doctor.
ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE COLLEGIANS TO RT. REV. CHARLES H. COLTON, D. D., BISHOP OF BUFFALO
" Right Reverend Bishop:
" Your advent to Niagara University is an occasion of sincere joy and real pleasure, for we know and appreciate the fact that you yourself took the initiative of this visit. Many eminent members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church have visited this institution.
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Their receptions were cordial and tender, yet their visits did not call forth the full response that your advent to-day elicits, for we know full well that your kindly visit has a more personal character, a more intimate reference, and a more sympathetic accord.
" Our college, our professors, and ourselves are subject to your spiritual rule and guidance, and the sentiments of love, esteem, and respect dutifully and lovingly offered you, generously spring from the hearts of your spiritual sons. We, the students of the collegiate department, extend to you our best, sincerest, and most cordial greet- ings. We lovingly welcome you, our spiritual ruler and father. We in a simple manner manifest our sentiments of reverence, respect, love, devotion, and obedience, for we recognize in your person the consecrated representative of our Holy Mother the Church, the good shepherd of the spiritual flock of the diocese of Buffalo.
" From the time His Holiness, Leo XIII., of happy memory, selected you as Bishop of Buffalo, our love and affection naturally turned toward you. Moreover, a sincere and earnest desire took possession of our hearts to see you in person and to tender our senti- ments of filial devotion and deep respect. We read with affectionate interest the account of your episcopal consecration, the numerous addresses of justly deserved congratulation offered you on that happy occasion, the grand reception given you on your formal en- trance into your diocese. Our religious training impresses upon our minds the lofty dignity to which you have been elevated, the grave responsibility of that dignity, the religious respect due to you. But if we reverence and respect you in your episcopal capacity, we love and esteem you still more devotedly as Bishop of Buffalo.
" The diocese of Buffalo is joined to Niagara and its professors with bonds of love and fond remembrance. The first bishop of Buf- falo was the saintly Timon, an exemplary member of the Congrega- tion of the Mission, whose name and works are still in benediction. His successor was the gentle Bishop Ryan, a true imitator of the virtues of Saint Vincent de Paul, and a model churchman. His early labors were connected with this institution; afterwards he was made Provincial of the Congregation of the Mission. Then, at the call of Rome, he accepted the onerous honor of the Episcopal See of Buffalo. His saintly life and noble deeds live after him and need no words of praise. Certainly here are reasons for the love, the gladness, and the joy with which we welcome you to-day.
" There is, however, another bond which unites us more intimately to you. Your worthy and eminent predecessor, the Most Rev. James
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Edward Quigley, was a collegian within these walls. It was here he disclosed these remarkable talents that have borne so much fruit in after years. His very name is a grand stimulus to us to improve our minds and to ground ourselves deeply and solidly in virtue and uprightness. When he was chosen Bishop we were glad. We marveled at the master mind with which he ruled his flock. We were honored with his friendly visits, and we mourn his elevation to the Archi- episcopal See of Chicago as our personal loss, but we rejoice because we saw, with delight, that the Holy See knew and appreciated his pru- dence, his sanctity, and his zeal.
"Assuredly then our love, our reverence, our devotion, our esteem, and our allegiance are generously and devotedly offered to you, his most eminently fitted successor, who comes to our Alma Mater to honor us with your cordial visit. The bond that binds you to the honored names of Timon, Ryan, and Quigley binds us also in a man- ner not dissimilar. As we love our college in its past and in its pres- ent, so we for the same reason love the revered names of Timon, Ryan, and Quigley. Then as we revered and still revere their hal- lowed names, so we as truly and sincerely pour forth our affections and regards to you on this happy occasion.
" Our college course prepares us for the battles of this life and neglects not the interest of the next. The atmosphere of a Catholic college is religious, unworldly, and spiritual. The pliant mind of the young Catholic boy is molded properly and fittingly. The whole man is educated. The intellect is developed, not at the expense of either of his moral qualities or of his physical powers. Rather all his faculties are developed in perfect harmony. Our Alma Mater has faithfully performed this duty in the past and is ably doing the same at the present time for us. This Catholic education is an object of supreme interest to you. In this we plainly see another bond of mutual love. Your own intelligent interest in the education of the young and your success as an educator in New York emphat- ically tell us that the educational institutions of your diocese are and will be objects of your enlightened zeal and encouragement. For this age needs educated Catholic men in the professional and business world; men who will bring the good odor of Christ into a world that knows Him not.
" Your virtues and your beautiful qualities of soul are the sweetest bonds that unite us to you in filial love and prompt obedience. Throughout your life you have displayed those splendid qualities of mind and heart that have won for you universal esteem and reverence.
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The rich have been your friends and the poor have been your favor- ites. It was the charity of Christ that urged you to do all the good possible at all times. You were the patient friend and prudent adviser to priest and layman. You have participated in their joys and sorrows. In a word, you were a father kind and indulgent to all. Many were the blessings invoked upon you for your numerous acts of charity and benevolence, and the verdict of all was that you were in truth the most Christ-like priest of the great Archdiocese of New York.
" We do not wish to weary you with your oft told praises, but in the name of the Collegians of Niagara University to offer you again our homage and obedience, to wish you length of days in the administration of the diocese of Buffalo, to express the desire to see you often in our midst, to drink in your words of wisdom poured forth with loving earnestness, to ask your prayers for our college and ourselves, and to promise you, after your noble example, to do all in our power in the future either as priests or laymen to show that the Christian training of our Alma Mater fell not upon ungrateful soil, but that it took deep root and developed in due season and brought forth good fruit.
" This is the time for us to declare openly that we see in you an image of a good shepherd, and we give our thanks to Him, the great- est of Shepherds in Heaven, that he has given us in your person the most amiable, kind, and virtuous, but ever alert and prudent, guardian of that precious pearl the ' Faith of Our Fathers.'
" Therefore, ' Let him be honored whom the King hath in mind to honor.' Would that we could invoke some spirit of eloquence to express the thoughts and feelings of this hour. Your apostolic zeal, combined with inexhaustible Christian patience, is for us, your faith- ful children, an invaluable blessing in this life. You are a prelate; you may rule now. The mitre is your crown here upon earth, the crosier is your scepter, and you rule not only the external act but even the hearts and affections of the people.
" We rejoice to-day for having in our midst such a distinguished visitor, the blessing of whose presence, like the sunlight, lends bril- liancy to the occasion. Again let me in behalf of the collegiate depart- ment bid you welcome, and as a favor we ask you to bestow upon us your episcopal blessing. May the Heavenly Spirits form your faith- ful guard, ever hover near, to assist you in your exalted functions, and may kind Heaven bless you with continued health and strength, that your administration may prove long, happy, and prosperous."
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ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF SEMINARIANS
"Right Reverend and Beloved Bishop:
" On behalf of the seminarians of Our Lady of Angels, I bid you heartfelt welcome to our Seminary home. At length, after anxious expectations, we are permitted to look upon our chief pastor, the Bishop of our diocese, to call him our guest as well as our Father in Christ, and to present to him in person those pledges of devotion which every aspirant to the ecclesiastical state is taught to hold as chief among his obligations.
"Our joy at the announcement of your coming, dear Bishop, was tempered, we admit, by fear, lest our preparations for your reception would not be commensurate with your dignity as a mitred prelate of the Church. Our memories are still fresh with the whole-souled tri- umphal ovations of which you were the recipient in the great city of New York and in your own episcopal city of Buffalo. We rejoice at the great tribute of esteem bestowed upon you by both clergy and laity, and we are filled with admiration and respect at the thought of having as our Bishop a man of God who is the happy possessor of the confidence of all his subjects. Tributes the most kindly have enriched the halo of your name, and by us who are so easily pleased by the fame of those whom we love and admire, this mark of reverence is treasured as a pearl of priceless value.
" That seminarians here abiding amid nature's solitude should hope to make a gorgeous holiday with cloth of gold or banners float- ing gaily, or music, or the military, or wealth, or beauty, to herald your coming to our halls, might have been our dreams, indeed, and would be our delight thus to honor him whom the Prince of Bishops hath honored. But we have taken courage in spite of our meager opportunities for display by taking refuge in that which the poor find as potent as the wealthy.
" In compensation we offer you, dear Bishop, the welcome of grateful, joyous, and loyal hearts. We behold in you one who has come to us as our chief teacher, on whose gentle brow has been placed the mitre of authority by command of the supreme Pontiff himself. Apart from the endearing personality which you possess and which is a happy augury for the seminarians of your diocese, we realize that as our Bishop you are entitled to our reverence, our love, our exact obedience, our prayers, too, that the heavy burden of the episcopacy may be borne by you without faltering until the years allotted to you shall have been accomplished.
" Short has been your sojourn in this diocese, but the loving
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fealty manifested everywhere in truth foreshadows a great future. Your characteristic goodness has already captivated the hearts of your subjects, and will insure unswerving loyalty. Many years have you spent in the vineyard of the Lord, and at His bidding you have now been raised to the episcopal state. May He continue to shower the plenitude of His grace upon you, preserving you long as our spiritual father.
" We who have the honor of adoption in your diocese feel that we belong in an especial manner to your household; that you have for us, the youngest members of your clerical family, the solicitude which marks the tender parent. And this relation of our Bishop towards us fills us with hopefulness, inspires us with eminent courage to prosecute our studies, to improve in piety, to adorn ourselves with all qualities befitting ecclesiastics. We have forsaken the world, parted with its pleasures and followed the call of the Master. We have heeded his counsel, left parents and friends, and followed in His footsteps. Well do we remember the memorable words of the Lord: 'You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you'; and mind- ful of the admonition we tremble lest our side of the scales be found too light. Our daily prayers and studies, our readiness to heed the voice of authority all augur well in our favor, but with fear and trembling we advance, seeking the paths of light and the footprints of the saints.
"Our parents and friends little suspect our trials ; seminary life to them is a sort of premature Heaven, a place of bliss and bounty. While our former fellow students are carving their careers in life, while they advance in their profession, while they count as factors in civic life, we in solitude are grinding fine the grains of wisdom in philosophy and theology. While they are making their fortune we are quietly, slowly but surely storing up the fundamentals of our future career. While they enjoy the realization of their hopes we are patiently climbing Horeb, the mountain of God, and only after long, persistent, and unswerving perseverance shall we reach the top.
"A visit like this is a ray of sunshine in our lives. We cherish it and hold it in memory dear. We never fail to appreciate its worth, and often refer to it with feelings of delight. We have enlisted as soldiers of Christ and for His sake try to bear our trials with joy and pleasure. And when, by the grace of God, your episcopal hands shall rest upon our heads, when the voice of authority shall consecrate us irrevocably to the service of the Most High, we shall renew the pledge of obedience so cheerfully given on this occasion.
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" Little do we know what Providence holds in the embrace of the future. Your station in life, dear Bishop, is one of eminence; to you look thousands of grieving hearts for comfort and redress. And when trials inseparable from one in your exalted position come upon you, may Christ the High Priest be your refuge and consolation ; may His Mother, Our Lady of Angels, sustain you as her well beloved client unto the perfect end."
ON BEHALF OF THE FACULTY
"Right Reverend and Beloved Bishop:
"Exuberant youth typified by the inmates of Niagara's study hall has been alert as usual, and through its representative has been the first formally to address you on this joyful occasion. The senior body has followed, expressing sentiments 'whose words all ears took cap- tive.' What remains for me, speaking in behalf of our faculty, to add as a compliment to the tributes which have just been paid to you, Right Reverend Bishop, by the student members of Niagara's house- hold? Indeed, I feel like saying with melancholy Hamlet that they have plucked out the heart of my mystery.
" I will not indulge in adulation ; you would not have it. Were I to take refuge in what Swift calls 'the food of fools ' I might well expect to hear your gentle voice reproving me: 'I come not to hear such flattery, sir, and in my presence.' I dare not transform myself into a prophet and proclaim for the Fourth Bishop of Buffalo a long, a roseate, an illustrious episcopacy, although God knows I wish it from the depths of my heart, as we all do, and I even pause to pray that I have spoken better than I know.
" To us, dear Bishop, as to yourself, the future is a sealed book, but its keeping is in the hands of the Great Shepherd, and we may trust to Him that when the pages of your Episcopacy are written the ' golden clasps will lock a golden story.' But I may be permitted, I hope, to turn from that which is hidden to that which is manifest, scan- ning for awhile the horizon of the past.
" It is a far cry, if you will, from 1908 to 1856 when the first Bishop of Buffalo invited the Vincentian Fathers to erect an ecclesias- tical seminary in his newly-formed diocese. From the days of Bishop. Timon to those of your immediate predecessor, the present Most Rev- erend Archbishop of Chicago, the College and Seminary of Our Lady of Angels has been favored and encouraged by episcopal support. During nearly half a century it has been the privilege and the conso- lation of Saint Vincent de Paul's children conducting this institution
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to train levites for the Sanctuary, to equip with suitable knowledge and piety under God those whom the Great High Priest had set apart to offer the clean and acceptable oblation.
" Nearly every diocese in the United States and not a few in Can- ada have numbered among their clerical forces soldiers of the Cross who were trained for their spiritual warfare at the shrine of Our Lady of Angels. The lovely diocese over which the Holy Ghost has ap- pointed you to rule has felt during all these years the helpful effects of a work so dear to the heart of Holy Mother Church as is that of educating ecclesiastics. The Faculties of Niagara from the begin- ning till now, impressed with the warning of their Father Vincent, have ever been solicitous to meet the wishes of the illustrious prel- ates whose seminarians had been entrusted to their keeping.
" It is not my place or my wish to enumerate the successes which may have crowned the labors of Saint Vincent's sons in the sacred task of providing worthy subjects for the sanctuary. I would only accentuate the fact that our endeavors to follow the lines laid down by him whom God raised up in the 17th century 'for the salvation of the poor and the discipline of the clergy '-ad salutem pauperum et cleri disciplinam-have met with episcopal approval, cordial, generous, and to us most encouraging to contemplate. Our relations with the Right Reverend Bishops of Buffalo have always been of a nature to sustain us in the prosecution of a work which was not always, indeed, as comfortably established as we of the present find it.
"Forty-six years ago the beginning was made, humbly as are most things done in the name of God, quietly as becomes a work which has God for its principal object, in poverty as are most of the proj- ects undertaken for the furtherance of our Religion. The Founder of our institution was Father John Lynch, C. M., afterwards the first Archbishop of Toronto. In an address which he delivered here dur- ing our Silver Jubilee in 1881 he attributed the work as done by God, since it could not have been carried on by the weak hands of men: 'A Domino factum est istud,' he exclaims, 'et est mirabile in oculis nostris.'
" Yet he does not neglect to tell us how through the advice of the first Bishop of your See a priest of the diocese of Brooklyn was in- duced to donate $10,000 to our struggling seminary lest the prop- erty bought, but not paid for, might revert to the original owners. And when legal complications ensued so that the donation could not be secured, we are told how another Prelate, the revered Bishop Lough-
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lin of Brooklyn, cut the gordian knot of litigation, sending the money forthwith to the impoverished seminary.
" When the fire fiend assailed us in 1864, sweeping away all that had been built up with so much toil, it was the first Bishop of Buffalo who came to our rescue with all that fatherly and practical support within episcopal command. He enlisted in behalf of our seminary the sympathies of so great a personage as Pius IX., whose generous donation testified to the zeal of that great Pontiff for the maintenance of ecclesiastical institutions.
" When Bishop Ryan took up the crozier laid down by his saintly confrere, he assumed towards Our Lady of Angels an attitude which made us feel that our work was appreciated by Buffalo's chief Pastor, not only in the seminary but also in the collegiate department. For, when in 1888 a number of Buffalo's best physicians, seeking to ele- vate the then unsatisfactory condition of medicine as a study, appealed to Bishop Ryan for co-operation, he advised them to affiliate themselves as a special school under the trustees of our institution. Concordant with his wishes we changed our legal title from College and Seminary of Our Lady of Angels to that of Niagara University, that this school of medicine, and later on a Buffalo Law School, might find legal existence under our new and enlarged charter.
" The Bishop of this diocese advised us to enlarge our sphere, and we obeyed him, even though some among our friends, not understand- ing our motive, arraigned us on the score of departing from our prim- itive spirit. The wisdom of the Bishop's advice that we co-operate in the demand for a better preliminary training in the study of medi- cine was vindicated when the legislature of this State made compulsory the four years' course inaugurated by the Niagara medical college.
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