USA > New York > Niagara County > History of the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels : Niagara University, Niagara County, N.Y., 1856-1906 > Part 18
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"Archbishop Lynch gave the final Benediction, after which the procession formed in order to march to the college cemetery. Nearly two hundred alumni were in line, besides a very large gathering of visitors, among them a delegation of Sisters of Charity, who had come
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from Buffalo to pay their tribute of respect to the remains of their Vincentian brother. The line of march was from the new chapel through the college campus to the sacred grounds, thence to the vault where Bishop Ryan performed the final obsequies. In a few moments the immense crowd began to disperse. Now Father Rice sleeps in the spot that he loved so well. Kindly hands will hereafter keep his grave green, and the odor of memory's flowers will fill the air forevermore. The spirit of Father Rice is near us; it will cheer us on our path, and will, so long as Niagara exists, be its guiding star."-Memorial Sup- plement.
Requiescat in Pace.
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LIBRARY OF
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VERY REV. P. V. KAVANAGH, C. M. Fifth President
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CHAPTER XVII
VERY REV. PATRICK V. KAVANAGH, C. M., FIFTH PRESIDENT
I N 1892 one of the present members of our Faculty contributed the following article to the " Cyclopedia of Niagara County," pub- lished in that year :-
" Rev. Patrick Vincent Kavanagh, C. M., a prominent educator, a sound theologian, an able preacher, and the present head of Niagara University, Western New York, is a son of Patrick and Mary (But- ler) Kavanagh. He was born in Ireland, May 12, 1842. His father - also born in Ireland toward the close of the last century - came, in 1849, to Buffalo, New York, where he died in 1876 in the eighty-first year of his age. He was a farmer by occupation, a Cath- olic in religious faith and profession. He was married to Mary Butler likewise born in Ireland, and who passed away in Buffalo in 1878 at the age of seventy-eight years.
"At seven years of age Patrick Vincent was brought by his pa- rents from Ireland to Buffalo. In his youth he attended Saint Pat- rick's school, Saint Joseph's school, and the Buffalo High school, spending a year in the latter place, after which he entered the Semi- nary of Our Lady of Angels (Niagara University), graduating from that celebrated institution in 1866. On August 19th of the same year he was ordained priest by Bishop John Timon.
" Shortly after his ordination he was made prefect of discipline in the collegiate department of what is now the University, and was also chosen as professor, serving in both capacities until March, 1871, when he was elected vice-president of Our Lady of Angels. After seven years of attentive and effective service in the last-named posi- tion he was, in 1878, upon the departure of the late president, Very Rev. Robert E. V. Rice, C. M., for Europe, elected to succeed him as president, and has served in that important capacity ever since.
" Father Kavanagh is a man of fine personal appearance while in manner he is courtly and affable. The personal regard in which he is held by the old students and friends of Niagara was evinced last October when he celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his ordi- nation to the priesthood. On that occasion more than two hundred of his former pupils assembled at the Seminary to do him honor, presenting him among many other gifts with a purse of five thousand
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dollars. Owing to his continuous labors as a responsible officer, and later as chief head of the University, Father Kavanagh was not able to avail himself of much-needed rest until the year 1890, when he was enabled to make a voyage to Europe, visiting France, England, Ire- land, Switzerland, and Italy.
" A man of keen observation, he brought back with him as some of the results of his extensive travels, notes and general information concerning the old world, all of which he delights in imparting to his present students. While in Rome, the 'Eternal City,' he was the recipient of many attentions from the dignitaries of foreign colleges, but nothing pleased him more than to meet and enjoy the company of several of his own dear boys, once inmates of Niagara, but now finishing their course as theologians in the American college."
The above cold-faced type, prepared for the eye of the general public, reveals no glimpse of the real Father Kavanagh, the lovable " P. V.," whose twenty-nine years of service at Niagara's shrine are years of scriptural fullness. More; they were years of sacrifice, of martyrdom like those of his saintly predecessor, a quiet martyrdom but none the less consuming. It was not the work to be done, the vigils to be kept over minim, junior, or senior, the monotony of his life, or the criticisms which neither a Kavanagh nor a Rice can escape that consumed him; it was, rather, his own delicate conscience, his almost painful sense of responsibility for the personal comfort, the personal safety, of each individual within his official keeping.
Father Kavanagh could "whistle away care," though a debt of over $60,000 fell upon his massive shoulders when the mantle of Niag- ara's presidency descended upon him. For he knew that the hand of Providence was not shortened, and that out of God's abundance more than a pittance would come in God's good time to relieve Niagara in her straitened condition. And, indeed, just before he resigned the reins of government into the hands of his estimable successor, Father McHale, C. M., he was able to say his "nunc dimittis " and add a jubilate hitherto unheard in our vicinity: "Niagara is free from debt!" But Father Kavanagh could not rest if all was not well in study hall or seminary. Impassive in appearance, stolid at times unto seeming indifference, his big, generous heart throbbed in pity like a woman's for any form of misery, physical or mental, with which he came in contact.
A man of giant mold, an athlete in his day, he was yet so tender of
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a minim's feelings that once when a disagreeable nickname was applied within his hearing to a rather forward youngster, the confusion which the latter exhibited as he looked appealingly to Father Kavanagh brought a suspicious moisture to the good man's eyes. And yet he could be strong, determined, and immovable as the rock-ribbed banks of our river. The laws of the Medes and Persians were not more unalterable than Father Kavanagh's decision once that it had been announced.
This estimate of the man will be judged, we know, from two dif- ferent standpoints by two different classes of friends (for Father " P. V." had no enemies). They who knew him officially and they who were conversant with his community life will gauge our meas- urement from their respective positions. The youngster, for instance, who was penanced in the '70's by Father Kavanagh for some violation of rule, and whose hatband has not increased with his years, may be puzzled to read that " P. V.'s " big heart was ever solicitous for the little ones of his flock. The senior whose dignity was ruffled by the Director in 1874-'75 through a dose of advice or the refusal of some permission, and who left in a huff for " more congenial climes," may say " distinguo " to the statement that Father Kavanagh's keen sense of responsibility overshadowed all other considerations. But they who knew him best as officer and later as companion will not gainsay the verdict of the present compilers, several of whom were under him in the study hall, were afterwards associated with him in the further- ance of Niagara's interests, and above all lived with him that intimate life afforded by community.
The post of prefect or director is not one spontaneously pro- ductive of popularity when rules are enforced against boyish inclina- tions, or the discipline of seminary life is exacted to the last farthing. It is only when the boyish mind becomes enlarged, and the senior mind grasps the value of systematic training, that this insistence on rule begets respect, and hollow popularity makes way for abiding reverence. During most of the twenty-nine years that Father Kavanagh spent at Niagara he was engaged in executive work of the kind just mentioned. His cast of character was too heroic to bid through weak connivance for the plaudits of callow youth ; he was a disciplinarian, and he may be said to have gloried in the fact. Not that he would enforce a rule for mere rule's sake, like a martinet in the army, but because his superior experience told him that a lack of early training in a school like ours would beget the careless seminarian,
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the slipshod pastor, the unreliable citizen, the negligent Christian, the political disturber.
His mind had a distinctively military bias, leading him as prefect to foster the drill among the boys of the study hall, to form them into companies, to hold inspections, to punish delinquents with the lighter military penalties, all of which had the effect of maintaining admirable order among his charges. Though Father P. V. loved these martial maneuvers, the same cannot be said with historic accu- racy of all who were forced to carry muskets and gyrate through campus or play-hall every Wednesday morning, with many a time between, until their empty weapons felt as heavy as the world on Atlas' shoulders.
Students of his day will recall the long-barreled guns which our government was said to have seized from the Fenians when the latter were planning their invasion of Canada. These guns found their way to our institution after the " Fenian scare " had subsided, and were stacked with greatest care in the armory at the south end of the old play-hall under the chapel. Nearly two hundred of them, well kept and quite suitable for drilling exercises, were obtained and preserved for twenty years, or during the greater part of the time that Father Kavanagh was connected with Niagara. A few of them are yet extant, as is said of rare old volumes, but their only service now is to dec- orate some carpet soldier as he steps before the footlights in our local plays.
If the present Faculty were compiling this book for the purpose of establishing the relative popularity of our fourth and fifth presidents we might snatch a ray of inspiration from the history of English classics, and say in reverse order what history says of rare Ben Jon- son : "He suffers eclipse from his successor." But we feel just now that we are engaged rather on the lives of two great servants of God, saints if you will, though uncrowned in the galaxy of Church. For the life of Father Kavanagh is so intimately connected with that of Father Rice during thirteen of the latter's sixteen years at Niagara that the interwoven threads cannot be separated without violence to the character of both.
The former was only a cleric of our community, sent here for his health like many of his class before and since, when he was appointed second prefect in the September of 1865, under Father Rice as Supe- rior. He taught fourth Latin, second Mathematics, first Writing, third Declamation, and second Christian doctrine, besides trudging
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around our 300 acres in quest of the "wandering sheep." For the boys of 1865 had a tendency to stray somewhat from the base of operations just as the boys of forty years later have a tendency to do - and as the second prefect came here for fresh air, the first prefect, Father Anen, gave him plenty of opportunity to inhale it by taking him on " scouting parties " or sending him alone to investigate con- ditions.
Perhaps no office in the house calls for such close attention to duty as that of prefect, if matters are to run smoothly in the lower department and a satisfactory year is to be told off between Septem- ber and June. Freedom and restraint must mingle in correct propor- tion ; orderly work and recreation must be consulted; " fun " for the boys, and yet a habitable home and not a bedlam for the rest of the house, are requirements which cannot be overlooked in any college worthy of the name. It is primarily to the prefect that the president and his associates look for a sweet adjustment of these difficulties, from which it will be seen that our prefects are something like pilots, and are expected to keep our little ship in smooth waters. Only those who have tried their hand at the wheel know how many rocks may be struck, perhaps dozens of them in twenty-four hours, although, in very truth, college catastrophes, especially after they are a year old, become reminiscent things provocative of laughter rather than any other fiercer passion.
In 1867 Father Kavanagh was appointed first prefect, and remained in that position until September, 1870, when he was pro- moted to the office of Vice-President, to succeed Rev. John T. Landry, C. M., delegated to open as Superior the new college of Saint John the Baptist in Brooklyn. At the opening of classes in 1871, Father Kavanagh is again first prefect, besides filling the office of assistant to Father Rice and that of Prefect of Studies. September, 1872, finds his position unchanged, but as an assistant prefect this year he has Mr. Nelson Baker, then a student of philosophy in the senior department of the seminary.
Thus into the list of Niagara's faculties comes the name of one who to-day is most favorably known among the best-known priests in the United States. That clear discernment which characterized Father Rice and his assistant, Father Kavanagh, in their estimate of charac- ter made no mistake when the present Right Rev. Mgr. Baker, Vicar General of the Buffalo diocese, was requested, though only a seminarian, to co-operate as second prefect in the government of Niagara's boys of that and another scholastic year. Possessing tact,
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gentleness of the proper consistency, and even then a thorough knowl- edge of boys' ways, he proved himself a most efficient aid to the over- burdened first prefect, while winning without extra effort on his part from the entire household esteem and affection which the years suc- ceeding have only increased and mellowed. He is one of three who studied here at different times, and who afterwards devoted themselves to the care of homeless boys, the venerable Father John C. Drumgoole, 1869, his successor Rev. James J. Dougherty, 1878, and the present distinguished head of Our Lady of Victory, Victorhill, N. Y.
Each of these devoted friends of youth passed fruitful years at Our Lady of Angels under the guidance of men like Fathers Rice and Kavanagh, who may be said to have spent themselves with truly Vin- centian charity for the education of the young. Was not contact with them sufficient to diffuse that apostolic spirit, that love for young souls, which helped to make the name of Saint Vincent de Paul synon- ymous with charity, the name of Dom Bosco revered in the circles of Christian education, and the names of Niagara's sons, Fathers Drumgoole, Dougherty, and Baker among the noblest of the dio- ceses to which they belong?
Although most of the older students remember Father Kavanagh as prefect, it was not after all in this capacity that he may be said to have rendered the most service to Father Rice in the latter's govern- ment of the house. It was rather as assistant Superior, or Vice-Presi- dent that he became what has been aptly termed by a member of the faculty in those days the right eye of Father Rice. As may be seen from the catalogues issued during the latter's term as President, Father Kavanagh was indeed a utility man in the most exalted sense of the word, assuming any position left vacant from any cause, and always through a spirit of unshaken loyalty to his chief. He was modest almost to a fault except when there was danger that his Su- perior might be embarrassed; then he came forward and with the most willing of hands and heart, generous Father Kavanagh stood in the breach, a veritable soldier of obedience, until relief came. He was not a man of rugged health in spite of his martial frame, yet he seemed never to tire in the minutiæe of his many occupations. No soldier in his college battalion, for he had soldiers under him, could exhaust him in a walk to Lewiston, Lockport, the Indian village, or Lundy's Lane. The fact that he had, as just mentioned, in the study hall several students who had served in the Civil War, gave him an op- portunity to introduce improved military tactics by employing his " young veterans " as drill masters to the dismay of the inevitable
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awkward squad recruited each September. Edward J. News, James J. Leyden, and John F. Leary were the spirited young men who, after having served their country in the war between the States, came to Niagara and entered our study hall, joining in our college drill with as much submission as though they had never heard the roar of can- non on the bloody field, or clutched their loaded weapons as the enemy advanced.
It was sport, perhaps, to these young heroes to skurry over our little campus in a mock charge of bayonets, but it was sport of a grim nature, since it must have reminded them of those dreadful onslaughts when the fiery breath of war swept by, and gaps were made in ranks of blue and gray. Father Kavanagh loved such students as these; he felt he had men in his midst, and yet it was significant of his character that he kept these once enlisted soldiers encompassed by the same dis- cipline as that decreed for the general government of the study hall. In following this course he had in view the suppression of that most contemptible cause of jealousies in army, navy, school, or jail favor- itism. To the credit of the young men who had worn the uniform of the United States soldier before they took up the ways of peace at the shrine of Our Lady of Angels, none of them presumed upon his previous condition to request exemptions from the general rule.
The first named became a member of our Congregation, Father Edward J. News, C. M., and after serving here as prefect and pro- fessor at various times, labored successfully for several years on the missions, retiring only a few years ago to assume the less exacting but still important position of Chaplain to the Sisters of Charity in Dearborn, Mich., where at present he is stationed. A man of peace, preaching the gospel of love, he will forgive us if, for the sake of showing our younger generation what calibre our study hall possessed in the 70's, we give a glimpse of his war record.
The regiment to which Father News belonged in the Civil War was the 137th Volunteers of New York, his native State. Company H, to which he was assigned, was in twenty-eight general engage- ments, among them those of Chancellorsville, Va., in four days' fight- ing; Gettysburg, three days ; Lookout Mountain, and Mission Ridge. He was at the siege of Atlanta from December 10th to December 21, 1864.
James Leyden entered business in New York after his departure from Niagara, but at present writing we have been unable to discover whether this deservedly popular student of olden days is yet among
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the living. We deplore such gaps as occur, especially in the case of such of our students as have not entered the priesthood. The latter can always be traced through the various directories published of the clergy, but all the means which we have hitherto adopted have failed at times to keep us in touch with our lay alumni.
One of the most painstaking efforts, lasting, we know, for several years, was made by Father Kavanagh to secure an accurate list of our alumni, lay and clerical, with their addresses, but although the system which he inaugurated with the aid of Father F. O'Donoughue, C. M., and brought to a degree of perfection has been followed since his time, our list of laymen is far from satisfactory. Perhaps this intended digression may serve in some degree, at least, to stimulate among our lay alumni the much desired practice of such cor- respondence between them and Niagara as will keep the authorities here informed of our former students' whereabouts.
An obituary notice in the Index for March 15th of this year has already told Niagara's little world that brave John F. Leary, 1870, has passed to his reward at the age of 61. After having served in the 15th N. Y. Volunteers (his native State), fighting with distinction in the battle of the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania, and at Bermuda Hun- dred, where he was wounded, he was present with his regiment at the surrender near Appomattox Court House. He became a priest, and at the time of his death he was pastor in Chapman, Kansas. In the course of its obituary notice the Index says: "Father Leary was the first Catholic priest to hold the honorable position of National chaplain of the Grand Army of the Republic, an office conferred upon him a year ago." Requiescat.
The frequent absence from home of Father Rice on collecting, missionary, and similar tours, threw the responsibility of the entire house on Father Kavanagh's shoulders, so that when the unfortunate decline of the former's health necessitated his resigning the position of President in the spring of 1878, Father Kavanagh's experience pointed him out as obvious successor to that office. It was not, how- ever, until the body of his beloved chief, Father Rice, had been laid in its temporary grave at Castleknock, Ireland, and there was no longer hope that the idolized head of Niagara would take his place as of old among priests and students at Our Lady of Angels, that Father Kavanagh permitted any title of Superior to invest his name.
Very Rev. James Rolando, C. M., then Visitor of the Vincentians in the United States, appointed Father Kavanagh to succeed lamented Father Rice, observing, of course, those preliminaries which are cus-
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tomary in our community in such events. Rev. Michael J. Kircher, C. M., was made assistant to the new Superior. In the catalogue for 1878-1879, the first scholastic year of Father Kavanagh's presidency, we find twelve priests on the faculty, assisted by three of our semi- narians - Rev. William Maguire, Professor of Latin; Rev. L. Er- hard, Professor of German; Rev. George Kaupert, Professor of German. The first mentioned is now a distinguished priest of the Brooklyn diocese, pastor of Transfiguration Church; the second is among the best known of our Western alumni; the third has risen to deserved prominence, and is now one of the Vicars-General of the diocese of Brooklyn.
Rev. Michael J. Kircher, C. M., Father Kavanagh's able and devoted assistant, came to Niagara in 1872 from Saint John's Col- lege, Brooklyn, N. Y., where he had been ordained priest on the 26th of November of the previous year. He was born in Cologne, Ger- many, in 1848, joined the Vincentians in Paris, France, 1867, and came to this country about a year later. His first duties here were as assistant Director of Seminarians, Professor of Gregorian Chant, and of Languages in the boys' department. In 1878 he succeeded Father Lavizeri in the chair of Dogmatic Theology, teaching that important branch of ecclesiastical study, with some interruption, during the twenty years of his stay at Niagara. He was amiable, learned, and efficient in whatever he undertook. The high esteem in which his learning as an ecclesiastic was held is shown by the office of " Moderator of Conferences " bestowed upon him by Bishop Ryan, and filled by him for several years with much satisfaction to the Buf- falo clergy.
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As Director of Seminarians, to which office he succeeded in 1881, remaining therein until the close of studies in 1887, his mildness of character, his learning, his tireless zeal that knowledge and piety should go together, made his administration one long to be remem- bered in the annals of Niagara. In 1893 Father Kircher, whose health had already declined to an alarming extent, was called to our Mother House in Germantown, Pa., where his duties were much less exacting. He died, March 5, 1894. Requiescat.
Rev. Michael Rubi, C. M., born in the Island of Majorca, in 1837, came to Niagara in September, 1878, as Director of Semi- narians and Professor of Moral Theology, remaining here until Sep- tember, 1884, when he was called to our seminary in Germantown. He was a man of deep and extensive learning, deservedly popular with the entire Niagara household because of his cheerfulness, piety, his
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fund of quaint knowledge, and his fatherly bearing towards the young. Whenever he went into the study hall to address its inmates the boys were sure of obtaining at the same time delightful entertain- ment and practical instruction. Although a great sufferer from asthma, he was constant in the discharge of his duties as Director and Professor. The seminarians who were under him profited immensely, not only from his extensive erudition, but also from his great experi- ence as a pastor and missionary. Prior to his coming here he had filled some of the most important positions in the Community, and when about ten years ago he was missioned to the city of Mexico, where at present he is stationed, he soon became one of the leading ecclesiastics in that capital.
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