History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 68

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The number of inhabitants of North America, amounting at that time to about 20,000,000 in the dif- ferent States, was continually increasing. The German immigrants clamored loudly for Catholic priests, and churches were not to be found sometimes at a less distance than thirty or forty miles.

In order to cover the want of the forsaken Catho- lics, Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer resolved to establish a Benedictine Abbey in America for educating young men for the priesthood. In general his plan was not well received in Germany, but there were not wanting stanch and influential friends to encourage him in this noble enterprise, and to tender him material aid. The first in rank who gave his approval to this plan was King Louis I., of Bavaria, next the Papel Nuncio Morichini, Bishop Count de Reisach, and the illus- trious mystic theologian Joseph Goerres. The "Louis Mission Union," organized for the propagation of faith, also promised its assistance upon the realization of the project. The matter long mooted in private circles finally reached the press, whereupon four stu- dents of theology and fifteen young men of different professions offered themselves as willing associates with the reverend gentleman in his noble undertaking.

King Louis I. did not deem such self-sacrificing men unworthy of his royal favors. Example, when set by royalty, is quickly followed, and this was no exception ; so the Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer was soon furnished with all the necessaries, and left Munich for America on July 25, 1846, after having sanisted at the holy sacrifice of mass, offered up for their success by Bishop Count de Reisach. From Rotterdam they embarked on the steamer "Iowa," and landed in New York Sept. 16, 1846.

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A few days were consumed in rest and visits to friends before proceeding farther, during which time they met Rev. Henry Lemke, then pastor of Carroll- town, Cambria „Co., Pa., who, having heard from Germany of the intention of Rev. D. Boniface Wim- mer and his associates, had come to New York to extend them welcome. In the course of a brief con- versation this reverend gentleman offered the colony his property in Carrolltown for a moderate compen- ration, and persuaded them to his settlement. But before entering into a bargain Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer consulted Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburgh, and upon his advice he took charge of St. Vincent, forty miles east of the city. His first visit thither disclosed the above-mentioned church, built of brick, a pastor's residence of the same material, a little school-house, and a frail log barn. On Oct. 18, 1846, he and his companions took possession of the place. The foundation of the future monastery was laid Oct. '24th of the same year by the conferring of the re- ligious habit on his subjects. Nineteen were to be invested, and there were only six habits. . The diff- culty, however, was overcome by the first invested returning to the sacristy and transferring their habits to the next in rank. The same poverty was witnessed at table, some having to wait for the dishes until their companions had taken their repast. Unshaken courage and fervent zeal for the good cause, however, animating all elevated them above the circumstances, and none was found to regret the step he had taken. Their first care was to sow some wheat in the hur- riedly cultivated soil for the next year's consumption .. In this kind of manual labor the Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer set a most heroic example; he felled many a proud tree, and shrank not from any hardship. Thus his stern steadfastness contributed not a little to animate and encourage the sinking spirits of some when in the next summer all means were exhausted and scarcely a spark of hope remained. But when in the direst extremity a letter came from Munich to St. Vincent, in the beginning of August, 1847, an- Bouncing the arrival of Rev. Dr. Peter Lechiner, O.S.B., from Scheyern, with a purse of five thousand gul- den, a donation from the "Louis Mission Union," with the further promise of a yearly contribution of two thousand gulden in case of success, fear and anxiety gave place to joy and gladness when the reverend gentleman and twenty aspirants to the Benedictine Order arrived on 17th of August at St. Vincent.

The brothers, young and old alike, of that infant monastic body now set to work with redoubled energy, despite of their half-starved condition, and an un- shaken trust in the providence of God was ever after their guide and stay.

Their immediate. wants being now supplied, the Rev. Superior's attention was next directed to other difficulties almost as trying to his heart. One of these was the lack of priests. He himself was obliged

to administer to the wants of Catholics in Greensburg, Saltsburg, and Indiana, Pa., but the labor was too great, the time allotted too short, and the neglect of his monastic family on their account far too serious to be long endured. He therefore raised to the priesthood on the 18th of March, 1847, Martin Geyerstanger, who took the name of Charles in ro- Ligion, and who had finished his ecclesiastical studies in Germany. This was the first ordination of a Bene- dictine in America. Rev. Dr. Peter Lechner and the young priest were now his colaborers. The latter having passed away April 22, 1881, a short sketch of his life will, we hope, not be taken amiss.

Rev. F. Charles Martin Geyerstanger, born Nov. 20, 1820, at Salzburg, Austria, was of medium height and broad-shouldered, with a choleric, sanguino tem- perament. In his active sacerdotal career his ser- vices were truly heroic. His childlike simplicity, meekness, and affability won many friends, and seal- ous as he was, all looked upon him as an angel of peace. Uniform in bearing towards all, even to the unjust, selfish, and proud, he possessed a keen sense of humor and an eccentricity that brought on incon- veniences which greater prudence might have avoided. A good theologian and an excellent historian, he was without an equal in sacred liturgy.

The arrival of Rev. Dr. Peter Lechner with the twenty aspirants to the Benedictine Order, although encouraging, incommoded in no slight degree the young monastic family, the buildings being too small- for such a number. The Rev. D. Superior therefore commenced the erection of a new one, one hundred by forty feet. The foundation was laid on the 28th of September, 1848. But as the winter had set in carly and was unusually severe, the new edifice, barely under way, was provided with a temporary roof, which was so defective that some were com- pelled, while taking their scanty meals, to protect themselves with the umbrella against rain and snow. They often awoke in the morning covered with snow or drenched with rain. These trials, however, far from discouraging, served but to strengthen their resolution, and their self-sacrificing Rev. D. Superior as ever animated their zeal in the noble enterprise by his glorious example. Hope at length began to dawn, and its resplendent rays, penetrating the mista of a cloudy horizon, became more substantial when the Rt. Rev. Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburgh, offered to the Rev. D. Superior the administration of Carroll- town, in Cambria County, which was gladly accepted, and the purchase of the property of Rev. H. Lemke was soon consummated. In the same year, 1848, the foundation of the present Priory, of which Rev. Dr. Peter Lechner and P. Charles Geyerstanger took charge, together with the neighboring missions, was laid.

Being now the only priest at home, and the adjacent Catholic settlements again falling under his charge, the Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer had those ecclesiastical

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students, who had in the mean time finished their studies under his direction, and who, having made their religious vows on April 15, 1849, raised to the priesthood, which was done on the 20th of the same month. They were, however, unequal to the demand, in consequence of which the Rev. D. Superior wrote to the Abbey of Metten, in Bavaria, for assistance, but obtained only one priest. Seeing then the ne- cessity of a seminary on a larger scale for the educa- tion of young men aspiring to the priesthood, be, on the arrival of several German students far advanced in their studies, was the sooner enabled to obtain his object. Good prospects led him to found, in the fol- lowing year (1850), the Priory in 8. Mary's, Elk Co., Pa.

The news of this zealous and indefatigable laborer in the Lord's vineyard had in the mean while reached Rome, and Pope Pius IX. raised the young Benedic- tine colony to the rank of a monastery. This flatter- ing recognition aroused the seal of the Rev. D. Su- perior still more, and the demand for priests being now supplied, his paternal heart found another chan- nel in which to direct his energies, namely, to supply the lack of competent Catholic teachers in the differ- ent parishes, who would instill into the tender hearts of the young good and sound moral principles. With this view he wrote to the venerable Mother Superior of the Benedictine nuts in Dryopolis (Eichstaett), Bavaria, but only three sisters responded, arriving in St. Mary's, Elk Co., Pa., July 22, 1852. They opened an academy in the same year, and taught the paro- chial school, and having in the course of time ro- ceived many novices, now count five hundred mem- bers in fifteen convents and thirteen mission-houses located in eleven different States.'

Prosperity now flourishing throughout the missions, the Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer undertook a journey to Rome in 1854, partly to return his humble thanks to the Sovereign Pontiff for the favors bestowed upon the young colony, and partly to explain matters more fully, in order, if possible, to have the new monastery raised to the dignity of an Abbey, and his journey was not made in vain. His Holiness received him kindly and cheerfully granted his request; and with- out any voucher, previous election, or petition from his subjects conferred on him the dignity of abbot for three years, a favor in such cases seldom granted. The Pope, moreover, allowed him to propagate, with the consent of the respective Bishops, the Benedictine Order in any diocese of the Union.

Thus favored and empowered he returned to America, and received from his subjects and friends a cordial reception. Such an opportunity for the propagation of his order in other dioceses was soon acted upon on the reception of a kind invitation

from the Right Rev. Dr. J. Cretin, Bishop of &t. Paul, Minn. On the strength of this invitation be founded a Priory in Stearns County the same year, 1856, and named it St. Louis, in token of gratitude towards his royal benefactor, Louis I., King of Bavaria. This Priory has since through the favor of the Sovereign Pontif been raised to the digaity of an Abbey, July 17, 1866, with the Rev. D. Rupert Beiden- bash, at that time Prior in St. Vincent's Abbey, as its first Abbot, and since June 80, 1875, Bishop of Halis I. P. I., and Vicar-Apostolic of Northern Minnesota. He was succeeded by Rev. D. Alezius Edelbrock, president of St. John's College, which was attached to the Abbey.

When the generous King Louis I. of Bavaria had been informed by Rt. Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer that this Abbey was named after his Majesty, he wrote, having been his regular correspondent, as several let- ters which are preserved in the archives of &t. Via- cent show, the following letter, which we shall sub- scribe in full :

the best prosperity to K, to you, and to the whole Besedlottno Order in

" With profremd cutout, and devoted to you at ovic, " Years most ofnessety,

"For the good wishes tendered mo cn the aaniversary of any Mrthdry, ced that of the Saint whose name I bear, contained ta your letter datad

Under such good anspices and wishes the Rt. Rev. Prelate steered forward on the ocean of life with ex- panded sails for other conquests. Another Priory was erected in Atchison, Kan., under the directorship of Rev. Augustine Wirth, in the same year, 1866, and in time raised to the same dignity. Unforeseen dift- culties, however, somewhat retarded his plans. The Rev. D. Augustine Wirth resigned his office, and was succeeded by Rev. D. Louis Fink, who was shortly after promoted to the Episcopal See of Leavenworth, Kan. His successor was Rev. D. Giles Christoph, who was in turn succeeded three years later by Rev. D. Oswald Moosmiller, under whore directorship the Priory prospered until March 28, 1876, when the Rev. Dr. Innocent Wolf, then Prior at &t. Vincent, was elected its first Abbot, September 29th, and consecrated October 20th of the same year.

After having accomplished so much, Rev. Boniface Wimmer next turned his attention to the South, and in the years 1876 and 1877 he purchased and estab- lished colonies in the States of Louisiana, North Caro- lina, Alabama, Georgia, and later, in the year 1881, at Wetang, Pulaski, in Southern Illinois, twenty miles north of Cairo. In Georgia he erected on Skidaway Island, near Savannah, an agricultural school for col- ored boys under the directorship of the able Rev. D. Oswald Moosmiller, who has since built in Savannah for the negroes the Sacred Heart Church, with a Cath- olic school in the basement frequented by sixty col-

1 In the year 1853 the Legislature of the State incorporated the monks at St. Vincent under the title "The Benedictine Society of Westmore- land County."

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ored children. As their number is daily increasing, he is contemplating the erection of a larger building exclusively for school purposes.

But the path of, the kind Abbot Boniface Wimmer was not always strewed with roses. Thorns and thistles often sprouted up to wound his tender heart and dis- turb the tranquillity of his mind. His term of office, prolonged by Rome, having in the mean time expired, and being accused in Rome, on account of a certain individual of his flock, by name Paul Keck, a religious fraud, of favoring and promoting Spiritualism, he was compelled to take a second journey to Rome in 1865 to free himself of the charge. Having proved to the satisfaction of all the falsity of the accusation, he estab- lished in the Eternal City the College of St. Elizabeth, to afford the most talented of his young ecclesiastical students an opportunity for acquiring greater perfec- tion in the sciences, and for attaining honorable aca- demic degrees. About this time, in accordance with a previous election by his subjecta, he was confirmed in Rome, July 27, 1866, Abbot of St. Vincent and Praeses of the Benedictines under his charge, forming the Americo-Casinensian Congregation, for life .- On his arrival home he received an invitation to the second Plenary Council in Baltimore, which was to begin on the first Sunday in October, 1866; but as the Vatican Council in Rome was announced soon after, he, as Praeses, having an assessment-right and suffrage-vote, was invited to attend, and accordingly set out for Rome a third time, arriving there Oct. 20, 1869. But as the council could not be continued on account of the war between Germany and France, and as the political at- mosphere of Rome itself was rather gloomy, he dissolved his College of St. Elizabeth, sending two young priests to the University of Innsbruck, in the Tyrol, to finish their course, and returned with the three others, who had received the diplomas of Doctors, to St. Vincent. Previous toils and the effects of old age now began to tell upon his constitution, though he was still unceas- ingly active in the interests of his order, of his Mon- asteries and Abbeys, and for the welfare of the Cath- olic Church in America. To him is due the first im- pulse of the now past-celebration of the fourteenth centenary of the Benedictine Order. The principal celebration of the feast-giving epoch in the history of the Benedictines was announced to take place on Pentecost, in 1880, at Monte Casino, in Italy, the shrine of St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine Order. On that occasion the Rt. Rev. Prelate went to Rome for the fourth time, and reopened the Col- lege of St. Elizabeth in the Eternal City. Shortly after his return to St. Vincent, he sent to Rome, on Sept. 30, 1880, four young men, two priests and two clerics, who were joined by two more in the fall of 1881, and placed them all under the directorship of Rev. D. Adalbert Mueller, Phil., Dr. L., who was pro- vided with an introductory letter to His Eminence Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of the Propaganda. His Enrinence replied in the following terms :

"Ry. Rev. Sık :

"Your letter of September 28th has been received, and perused with exceeding joy upon the intelligence of your having sont to Rome two priests and two clerics to study philosophy and theology. It affords 10 great pleasure to offer you my congratulations sed to confer upon you the well-merited prales, for I think that you have done a very good work for the Church in America by cpening for your monks a house where they are casbled to attain a greater perfection in their mecred studies. Rightly ced meritoriosely you acted, for from here are drama parer Apostolic tradition's of the Church, cod as Romse is the head of Catholicity and the See of the Roman Pesti, doctors of the highest moto from every quarter of the globe make it their obede. I hope, therefore, you will reap richer fruit, and, if possible, thet more young clerics from the United States chall come to Rome to finish thetr phile. sophical course, and become more proficient in mered discipline. The Catholic Church would then surely shine with greater lestre in America. Bat as far as you are concerned, you have done a good work, and I will pray to Ged thet he may preserve you long.

" ROME, AT THE PROPAGANDA, Jan. 2, 1881. "Your devoted brother,

" JORT CARD. SURGIT, PrefecL.

"BY. REV. BeatFACE WHORE, Aber, O.S.B., " Westmoreland.

Having viewed the venerable prelate's tireless life in many States and climes, let us now turn our atten- tion to the home of his labors, St. Vincent. If the progress of the order was rapid and material abroad, it was no lees so at home. The old frame barn has been replaced by a new one built of brick, two hun- dred and twenty-two by sixty-seven feet, and the ar- rangement of this huge structure, under the immedi- ate supervision of Ven. Brother Andrew Binder, is complete in every detail. The brewery and a flour- mill, with three stones, are well known. The old parochial residence, forty by forty feet, has given place to an Abbey of four hundred by two hundred and ten feet, which, though not in the latest or best style, is withal commodious and well adapted to its purpose. The Seminary, small and deficient in many respects when founded in 1848, was advancing slowly but surely under Rev. D. Alphonse Heimler, until it attained perfection under the directorship of the Rev. Dr. Hilary Pfraengle, which the qualifications of the board of professors and great crowd of students, to the number of three hundred and fifty, yearly testify.

On the 24th of August, 1855, Pope Pius IX., by Apostolic Brief, erected the religions community at St. Vincent into an Abbey, the effect of which action was to give to the community a well-defined status in the ecclesiastical organization of the Catho- lic religion, and to raise its Superior to the dignity of a Prelate, which is a dignity somewhat akin to that of a Bishop. By an act of the Assembly of Pennsyl- vania of April 28, 1870, the institution was incorpor- ated with the power of conferring academical degrees. The course of studies is the theological, classical, and commercial. The college possesses a large library of sixteen thousand volumes, a chemical - and philo- sophical cabinet, a herbarium of fourteen thousand species, a collection of shells, fossils, and a coin col- lection of five thousand rare specimens.

Art, too, has found a fostering influence in the

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young Abbey, and has been cultivated by prominent professors, as the many paintings in the art gallery and at the different Priories attest. A photographic atelier is numbered among the latest additions to St. Vincent. Art-joinery there in the different styles of altars, by Ven. Brother Cosmas Wolf, has attained a high state of perfection, as those in St. Vincent, in the convent of the Franciscan Sisters in Covington, Ky., and in St. Francis' Church in Cincinnati, and in many other cities and towns plainly certify.

The musical acquirements of many of the profes- sors are known far and wide, and some have even re- .ceived the flattering appellation of virtuosos.

Ranking next to art and science, and closely con- nected with the latter, is the printing department. This was from its very beginning the favorite idea of the Venerable Prelate, though not realized till the year 1865, when a printing-machine was procured, which has ever since been of the greatest service. For some years back it has kept three type-setters continually busy, and is presided over by the Very Reverend D. Sebastian Arnold. With this is con- nected a book-binding establishment, in which two men are constantly engaged.

Tradesmen of all kinds are found among the Bene- dictines. The tailoring department is run by four very diligent men, under the direction of a worthy Brother. In the shoe-shop three brothers ply the awl and last from morn till night, and are sometimes, as is often the case with the tailors, unable to satisfy the demands of the inmates of the Abbey and College. A harness-maker is kept busy doing justice to himself and trade. Carpenters and masons, black-, tin-, and locksmiths always have their hands full of work. Bakery and butchery are carried on by the Abbey's own inmates, and cannot be less active, considering the great number of students, its own members, and the never-diminishing number of wayfarers.

All these achievements owe their origin to the Ven- erable Prelate, and their culmination and mystical sanctification to the open and disinterested religious tendency which he has sown in the hearts of bis sub- jects from the day he invested the first nineteen in the habit of the order. This tendency, or, more strictly, spirit, based upon the evangelical counsels, is identi- cal with that of their founder, the great St. Bene- dict. In virtue of these counsels the Venerable Pre- late, Boniface Wimmer, is by ecclesiastical authority the spiritual father and physician, the teacher and high priest of his flock with plenary jurisdiction. This be kindly exercises over those subjects under his immediate care, resident in thirteen States of the Union, numbering 106 priests, 1 deacon, 35 clerics in minor orders, 11 novices, 116 lay-brothers, and 85 scholastics, together with 8 Priories, 17 parishes, and 14 missions. Adding to these the Abbey of St. Louis (having lately changed its name to St. John B.), in Minnesota, St. Benedict, in Atchison, Kan., and St. Malachy, in Iowa, with their Priories and

parishes, whose founder and Praeses is the Venerable Prelate, we have his whole work spread over sixteen States, counting 3 abbeys, 1 independent Priory, 11 depending Priories, 45 parishes, and 48 missions, all of which contain 151 active priests, 60 clerics, 19 novices, 177 lay-brothers, and 150 scholastics. The number of the parishioners under the care of the Ben- edictines in the United States is about 42,000. Their colleges, in which are taught the different arts and sciences, are 6, and the number of pupils frequenting them every year average 500. The number of priests having completed their studies at St. Vincent alone, comprising regulars and seculars, is about 400. The catalogues of the different years contain many names of students who are now prominent lawyers and phy- sicians, esteemed clerks and respectable citizens. They all proudly acknowledge St. Vincent as their "alma mater," and profoundly reverence, duly ro- spect, and sincerely love her founder and their bene- factor, the Rt. Rev. and Most Illustrious Prelate, Lord Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B.'

ST. XAVIER'S CONVENT AND SEMINARY.

The Convent and Young Ladies' Academy of &t. Francis Xavier, being the religious house and semi- nary of the Sisters of Mercy, is situate about three miles from Latrobe, in Unity township, Beatty being its post-office and railroad station, and St. Vincent its telegraph-office.

The Order of Mercy was founded by Catherine Mc- Auley, in the city of Dublin, Ireland, in the year 1881. This generous and philanthropic lady was endowed by nature with qualities of rare value of both mind and heart, which fitted her for the important mission she was called upon to fill. As soon as she came into the possession of her ample fortune she hastened to relieve the suffering and distress of her own neighbor- hood. A few years' experience showed her how much she might be able to do in preserving the innocent, reclaiming the erring, and instructing the ignorant by assembling around her a few pious and educated ladies who could aid ber in the good work, her own means being sufficient for the building of a school, an orphan asylum, and a home for destitate servant- girls when out of situations. These buildings were erected in Baggot Street, Dublin. Soon Miss Mc- Auley was joined by several young ladies, who were attracted by the good works they saw carried on in their midst. These pious ladies now began to visit the sick in their houses as well as in the hospitals. The Archbishop of Dublin being greatly pleased with the good accomplished by the little congregation, and wishing to make it permanent, advised Miss McAuley and two of her companions to retire to a convent and make a novitiate, after which they made the three vows of poverty, charity, and obedience, assumed a

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 68

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: