USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Woonsocket > History of the Catholic church in Woonsocket and vicinity, from the celebration of the first mass in 1828, to the present time, with a condensed account of the early history of the church in the United States > Part 2
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EARLY DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA.
Dicuil, an Irish monk, who wrote in the year A. D. 825, records that the Irish, to his knowledge, were in the habit of going to Thule, or Iceland, in A. D. 795, this be- ing about 200 years before Eric Randi sailed to discover Markland and Finland, being respectively the present terri- torial countries known as Nova Scotia and New England. This goes to show and, with all the appearance of authen- ticity, prove, that the Irish were in those early centuries of the Christian era great wanderers in their ships, over known as well as unknown seas.
There was undoubted settled belief of the existence of some mighty land lying down below the Western wave, in the path of the descending sun, for ages and centuries be- fore Columbus set sail down over the waters of Palos bay, and pointed the prows of his caravels westward over a desert waste of waters. The fable of a lost Atlantis, which it was said sunk down in Ruin's wave, was the growth of some tradition of the past, which come down to Europe from Northern waters, spoke like some spirit of earth and ocean of a land laying far out in the West. The word At- lantis means in Gaelic, " Shore of the Western land."
Ireland had her mythical Atlantis, which she called at one time the Island of St. Brandon, and at another time Hy Brazil, places corresponding to the Avalon of the Brit- ish, the Regnarauker of the Norsemen, the Acharon of the Greeks and Romans and the Sheol of the Hebrews. These six or seven names have all the same meaning, and all are Irish words, even Acharon.
Brandon and Brazil mean " end or edge of the world," as all Irish scholars must perceive. "Hy " means country or island and corresponds with the German word "heim." Brandon, meaning "end of the world," is also appropri- ately found in the- extremity of Lapland. The Barondins of that place are mentioned by Ptolemy. Sheol and Acha-
.
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ron have been in the imagination of the Greeks, the Romans and the Rabbins as places where departed spirits dwell. The Monks of the Middle Ages had several legends of ad- venture, founded on the actual attempts of mariners to make voyages over the western ocean. The undiscovered land beyond the Western wave was by legendary lore supposed to be the abode of departed souls, and the Limbo of spirits vanished from the world of living men.
An old English version of the voyage of St. Brandon, published some years ago, made with one or two of the Monks to the outer isles of the Western ocean is roman- tically poetic in its coloring. At a well, visited on one of the islands, it is related in this version that a large number of birds was seen, which by fluttering their wings made music equal to the songs of angels. Dante has a similar incident in his great, immortal poem, " The Vision," in which he re- fers to flames producing singing sounds. In relation to Dante it is claimed that he gathered the greater part of his inspiration from the old Keltic idea respecting the Isle of St. Brandon and the Purgatory of St. Patrick, as represented in the religious legends of the Middle Ages. It is claimed that Dante had not so much originality in his productions as claimed for him by his admirers. He adopted the spirit of the "Moralities" and "Mysteries" in the same manner that Tasso imitated the epic style of Virgil.
Shakespeare, the greatest of English dramatic poets, freely used Plutarch's "Parallel Lives" for personages in- troduced into his dramas, as well as for dramatic effect and the learned lore spoken in dialogue by the dramatis per- sonæ of these dramas.
The following verbatim lines from an accomplished scholar in relation to St. Brandon and the legends connected with him, where similar comparative illustrations are found in the poetic productions of Dante and Tasso, as well as in
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the philosophy of Pluto, the latter setting forth the punish- ment endured by evil men and those who tyrannize their fellowmen in the world, is herewith given :
The adventures of St. Brandon led him through several scenes which serve to warn the living of the vanity of their pursuits, and the retribution or remorse that must follow them; and they are much more religious than geographical. The descriptions are a curious mixture of Paradise and Purgatory, being to the poetry of the fierce-hearted Ghibbeline what the works of the pre-Raphaelites were to those of the great artist whose harbingers they were. It may be observed in passing that the Gardens of Armida in Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered " is placed by him somewhere out in the Atlantic, in an isle of St. Brandon.
Hy Brazil was of a similar character, with a certain differ- ence which seemed to show it had its place somewhere nearer the Norsemen's latitude, for people there seemed under the necessity of doing battle in some deadly manner. The ex- planation of this is that " Bresyll," in Keltic and the Norse, means war, showing that a pun was the origin of that part of the legend.
The minds of the Irish were for ages, prior to the dis- covery of America, full of some great unexplored land be- yond expanse of ocean waste, in the direction of the setting sun. In the course of time, growing familiar with the horizon effects at sea, these early westward contemplators were led to conclude that the surface of the sea and land was a con- vex. As early as the eighth century Virgil, a Kelt of either Irish or Scotch birth, over six hundred years before Galileo. the greatest of the early experimental philosophers, lived, involved himself in religious trouble because he positively asserted the earth was round and that there were antipodes. A knowledge of the sea together with good ships and the love of adventure urged the early Irish mariners to brave the storms of the deep in search of unknown lands, even in advance of the Norsemen, whom Humboldt believed were
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the discovers of America. Leaving aside the statement of the Norse Sagas, the evidence of the Keltic language is strongly set forth as an argument in favor of the Irish in regard to the first discovery of the western world. One of these Norse Sagas asserts that the people of Island-it-mikla, being the regions of what is now known as the Carolinas, Georgia and part of Florida, when visited by the Norsemen, spoke Irish. Lionel Wafer, a great English navigator, in an account of his voyages states that the language of the natives of the isthmus of Darien on his visit there, sounded to him like the Gaelic of Scotland and the North of Ireland, and gives a few words in illustration as follows : "Tautah," was the American for "father," meaning "Tat" and "Dadh" in Keltic ; "Boona" was the term used for "woman," cor- responding to "Ban" in Keltic; "Neena" meant girl, cor- responding with "Inneen," daughter, in Keltic ; "Maldoqua"' meaning an execration, and having a similar meaning in Keltic; "Doolah," water, corresponds with "Juille," water, in Keltic ; "Copah," meaning drink, has a similar meaning in Keltic, this word being also applied to drunkenness.
Several other parallels may also be found. "Tashtus- sah," the name of the first known chief of the Narragan- sett tribe of Indians, means "Chief man" in Keltic ; "Ouas- conebe" means drink in Algonquin speech, and has the same meaning in Keltic; "Jossakeed" means "sorcerer" in the language of the Algonquins, and "Man of Magic or Science" in Keltic ; the name "Algonquin," as applied to the tribe, means "noble race" in Keltic. In crossing into Canada, where the word "Kanuck" is used and the name "Quebec" is applied to the city and province, even these three words, "Canada," "Kanuck" and "Quebec," have the same mean- ing in the Keltic tongue, this being "A mountain height."
So much as to the discoverers of America and the first to erect the symbol of Christ's crucifixion and death
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EARLY DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA.
on the shores of the western hemisphere. Irishmen derive pleasure in knowing that it was from Leyden in South Holland, a city built by Kelts in the earliest ages, that the Pilgrim Fathers found an asylum from persecution and started on their perilous voyage from there over stormy seas, so that they might enjoy soul-liberty in the New World. It is also gratifying to know that John Boyle O'Reilly, a Kelt, composed and delivered the best poem on the Pilgrim Fathers that any poet ever produced. The name Leyden is distinctively Keltic, and that fine old city, with its magnificent institutions of learning, reflects credit on its founders. In fact the oldest inhabitants of Holland of whom anything is known were of Keltic origin. So much may be gathered from remains in caverns and from proper names, such as Nimeguen and Walchere, and from ruins of Druid altars discovered there.
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The House in which the first Mass was celebrated in 1828, now known as the "Osborne House," in Union Village.
Catholic Church in the United States.
CHAPTER I. ARCHDIOCESE OF BALTIMORE-BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ARCH- BISHOP CARROLL.
THE Catholic Church in the United States has made wonderful progress since the time the first Mass was cele- brated in Woonsocket in 1828. There was only one Arch- diocese, that of Baltimore, which was erected as a Diocese on April 6, 1789, the Archdiocese being established April 8, 1808. Most Rev. John Carroll, D. D., a cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was consecrated first Bishop of Baltimore on Aug. 15, 1790, and was created Arch- bishop in 1808. He died Dec. 2, 1815.
The other Archbishops of the Archdiocese of Balti- more, after Archbishop Carroll, were respectively as fol- lows : Most Rev. Leonard Neale, consecrated Coadjutor Bishop Dec. 7, 1800; died in 1817; Most Rev. Ambrose Marechal, D. D., consecrated Dec. 14, 1817 ; died in 1828 ; Most Rev. James Whitfield, D. D., consecrated May 25, 1828 ; died Oct. 19, 1834; Most Rev. Samuel Eccleston, D. D., consecrated Sept. 14, 1834 ; died April 22, 1851 ; Most Rev. Francis Patrick Kendrick, D. D., consecrated as Coadjutor Bishop of Philadelphia June 6, 1830; promoted to the Archdiocese of Baltimore Ang. 19, 1851 ; died July 8, 1863; Most Rev. Martin John Spaulding, D. D., conse- crated Bishop of Louisville Sept. 10, 1848, promoted to the Archdiocese of Baltimore May 3, 1864; died Feb. 7,
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ARCHBISHOPS OF BALTIMORE.
1872 ; Most Rev. James Roosevelt Bayley, D. D., conse- crated Bishop of Newark Oct. 30, 1853; promoted to the Archdiocese of Baltimore July 30, 1872 ; died Oct. 3, 1877 ; His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons, consecrated Bishop of Adramyttum Aug. 16, 1868; First Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina; transferred to the see of Richmond, Vir- ginia, in 1872; promoted to the see of Baltimore Oct. 3, 1877; created Cardinal Priest June 7, 1886.
His Excellency, Most Rev. Sebastian Martinelli, D. D., Archbishop of Ephesus ; Prior-General of the Augustinians and Apostolic Delegate for the United States, appointed as such Aug. 7, 1896, is attached to the see of Baltimore as the Pope's Representative in this country.
Together with the Archdiocese of Baltimore there were only five dioceses existing at the time the first services were held in Woonsocket in 1828, these being New York, Bos- ton, Philadelphia, Bardstown and New Orleans. At the present writing there are thirteen Archbishops in the United States; one Cardinal; seventy-seven Bishops; 10,911 priests ; 5,946 churches with resident priests ; 3,472 mis- sions with churches; making a total of 9,418 churches. The stations and chapels number 5,105; universities, 16; secular seminaries, 25 ; students attending, 2,002 ; religious seminaries, 72; students attending, 1,871; colleges for boys, 215 ; academies for girls, 614 ; parishes with schools, 3,636 ; children attending, 819,575 ; orphan asylums, 248; inmates, 33,100; charitable institutions, 757; total chil- dren in Catholic institutions, 959,000; estimated total Catholic population of the United States, based on actual figures furnished by pastors of parishes, 14,000,000, being about one-fifth of the total population of all States and territories.
CHAPTER II.
MOST REV. JOHN CARROLL, D. D., LL. D., FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE.
In connection with this history a short biographical sketch of the life of Most Rev. John Carroll, D. D., LL. D., first Bishop and also first Archbishop of Baltimore, must prove of interest to every Catholic, as well as to every Christian who admires that which is self-sacrificing, pure, holy, brave and noble in human nature.
This famous prelate, the third son of Daniel Carroll and Eleanor (Darnall) Carroll, was born in Upper Marl- boro, Maryland, on January 8, 1735. His father was a native of Ireland, and belonged to a Catholic family that preferred the loss of property, under the Penal laws, to the abandonment of Faith.
Eleanor Darnall, the mother of the Archbishop, was a native of Maryland, and daughter of wealthy Catholic parents. Educational institutions being few and far be- tween at that time Miss Darnall was, consequently, sent to Paris, where she was educated with much care in a select school, and soon attained eminence for piety, amiability, mental culture and varied accomplishments.
The brutal intolerance of the English Penal code against the education of Catholics even extended to Mary- land, being then one of the British colonies, and, therefore, subject to the English laws.
A few Jesuit Fathers at that time existing in Maryland counteracted to a certain extent those abominable laws by establishing a school in a secluded spot on an estate be- longing to themselves. The name given to the estate was
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HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Bohemia Manor. . This school was designed to prepare Catholic youth for entrance to European colleges. Here John Carroll, when aged 13, and his cousin, Charles Car- roll of Carrollton, passed a year as companions in hard and diligent study. The two cousins, at the end of that year, crossed the Atlantic and entered the Jesuit College of St. Omer, in French Flanders.
The future Archbishop remained as a student at St. Omer until 1753, when he entered the novitiate of the So- ciety of Jesus, as a follower of St. Ignatius DeLoyola, and two years later was removed to Liege, where he made a course of Philosophy and Theology. In 1759, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, he was ordained a priest. In becoming a priest of the Jesuit order he thus voluntarily gave up his patrimony in America to his brother and sisters and instead took up poverty and the Cross as his compan- ions. He filled the chair of Philosophy successively at the Colleges of St. Omer and Liege until 1771, when he became a professed Father of the Society of Jesus.
On July 21, 1773, Father Carroll proceeded to Eng- land, where he accepted an appointment as Chaplain to Lord Arundel, and took up his residence at Wardour Cas- tle. The heated controversy between England and her American colonies, going on at that time impelled Father Carroll to return to Maryland, in order that he might render service in the cause of Freedom. He left for home in the summer of 1774, and, on arrival, took up his residence with his mother at Rock Creek. Here, at first in a room in the family dwelling, and subsequently in a little wooden Chapel, he offered up the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar.
This little wooden Chapel is still perpetuated, by a neat brick Church which stands on its site, and is reverently known as the Carroll Chapel.
From this ancient home, as a center, he traveled, on
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FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE.
horseback, great distances in the performance of missionary labors at the dwellings of Catholic families, often riding thirty miles to attend a sick call. He paid monthly visits to Stafford, Virginia, a distance of sixty miles from his home, where a small colony of Catholics was located. He continued these arduous labors for eighteen months, when at last open hostilities broke out between England and the thirteen colonies, and he responded to a call of his country for active duty in her service.
Congress appointed Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll of Carrollton as commissioners to proceed to Canada, to negotiate for the assistance of that people, or at least to secure their neutrality in the issues then in progress between England and her colonies, and as Archbishop Hughes was sent by the Government to Europe during the Rebellion on "a mission of peace between France and England on the one side and the United States on the other," so Father Carroll obeyed in a like manner the request of Congress to accompany the commission to Canada, in order that he might explain to the Canadian priests the nature of the principles of the Revolutionary struggle. In this mission he was treated with respect and listened to with polite attention.
The health of Dr. Franklin became so poor that he was obliged to return, leaving Messrs. Charles Carroll and Samuel Chase behind. Father Carroll accompanied Frank- lin on the return journey, and a friendship sprung up be- tween the priest and statesman which lasted through the whole of the life of each. Franklin, in one of his letters, written on reaching New York, on the return trip, acknowl- edged Father Carroll's kind ministrations to him in the fol- lowing sentence :
As for myself, I grow daily more feeble, and I should hardly have got along so far, but for Mr. Carroll's friendly assistance and tender care of me.
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HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Father Carroll resumed his duties as a priest, after his return to Rock Creek, and throughout the long and great struggle of the Revolution showed ardent sympathy in the cause of Independence.
Soon after the close of the war the priests in Maryland and Pennsylvania petitioned the Pope for the appointment of an ecclesiastical superior, to rule over the Church in the United States. The Pope coincided with their views and gave Maryland a provisional ecclesiastical organization, by the appointment of Rev. John Carroll, D. D., LL. D., as Prefect Apostolic. In making the selection Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who was at that time United States Minister to Paris, was consulted, as the following item taken from the diary of that patriot, statesman and philosopher, proves :
1784, July Ist-The Pope's Nuncio called and acquainted me that the Pope had, on my recommendation, appointed Mr. John Carroll Superior of the Catholic clergy in America, with many of the powers of a Bishop, and that, probably, he would be made a bishop " in partibus " before the end of the year.
Thus did the Holy Father at the very beginning show his appreciation of the young Republic and acknowledge the constitution and laws of the Government, of the Union of States, as in keeping with the Church.
A circumstance took place in Philadelphia at the close of the Revolutionary war, which is worthy of record here, this being the chanting of a solemn "Te Deum Laudamus," in St. Joseph's church in that city, at the request of the Marquis de la Luzerne, the French Ambassador, at which solemn ceremony Gen. Washington, Gen. Lafayette, other generals of the army, members of congress and distinguished citizens were present. This is a further proof of the Catho- lic Church being, from the very beginning, in perfect accord with the American Republic.
A recent circumstance gives still further proof of re- spect for Church by the supreme executive of the Govern-
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FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE.
ment and the assurance of the highest representative of the Church in this country that this old Church is in perfect sympathy and accord with the Government in its present policy. This circumstance was when Cardinal Archbishop Gibbons, in full ecclesiastical robes, on October 3, 1899, standing on the steps of the Capitol at Washington, with President Mckinley and Admiral Dewey, pronounced the Benediction of the Church to the hundreds of thousands of people assembled there at the Admiral's reception, and then after imparting the Benediction, turning to the greatest hero that ever commanded a fleet since the world began, ad- dressed him as follows :
Admiral, I cannot let this opportunity pass without congratu- lating you on your magnificent victory which has added renown to the American name throughout the world. I hope you will live many years to enjoy your honors, the fruits of your splendid achieve- ment. Permit me, Admiral, to thank you for your kindness to the Chaplain of the Olympia, Father Reany, who is a priest of my diocese. I hope that the benediction of seventy-seven millions of people will make your remaining years exceedingly happy. I re- joice to be present on this eventful occasion.
The reply of Admiral Dewey to the Cardinal's address was as follows :
I thank you sincerely, your Eminence, for your gracious and complimentary words. I appreciate the honor of having you pres- ent on this, the happiest occasion of my life.
Here were the three highest dignitaries in the United States, Cardinal Gibbons, representing the Catholic Church ; President Mckinley, the chief executive of the entire States and Territories, and Admiral Dewey, representing the en- tire Navy. It was a glorious sight and most glorious occa- sion.
The name of Very Rev. John Carroll, Prefect Apos- tolic of the Church in the United States, was selected for that of Bishop of Baltimore by the priests of Maryland, Pennsylvania and elsewhere early in 1790, which selection
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HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
met with the sanction of the Pope, who forwarded approval of his selection, and ordered his consecration. The new responsibilities he accepted with fear and trembling, as the following extract from a letter written to a friend in Eng- land, after his election by the priests, will show :
I am so stunned with the issue of this business that I truly hate the hearing of the mention of it, and, therefore, will say only that since my brethren-whom in this case I consider the interpre- ters of the Divine Will-say I must obey, I will do it; but by obeying shall sacrifice henceforward every moment of peace and satisfaction.
When he received his appointment from Pope Pius VI, as Bishop, he was obliged to proceed to England for conse- cration, on account of there being no bishop here to act as consecrator. The solemn ceremony took place in the Chapel in Lulworth Castle, the lordly residence of the pious Thomas Weld, on Sunday, Aug. 15, 1790, being the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. The consecrator was Right Rev. Bishop Walmsley, the then senior Bishop of England. This first Bishop of Baltimore arrived home late in the fall of 1790, and was joyfully welcomed. His Dio- cese included the whole of the United States. His own esti- mate of the Catholic population in the United States at that time was 30,000, or one in every 100 of the white popula- tion. The first national census, taken that year, placed the total white population at 3,200,000. The total number of Catholics in Maryland was estimated at 16,000 ; the total in Pennsylvania at 7,000; the total in Detroit and Vincen- nes 3,000 ; the total in Illinois 2,500 and in all other States the number was estimated at 1,500, making 30,000 in all. There were then about 35 priests in the whole of the orig- inal thirteen States, which, with Maine, then acknowledged as a portion of Massachusetts, would make a total of 377,- 134 square miles of territory, being in the proportion of 10,775 square miles for each priest.
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FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE.
Bishop Carroll, while yet Prefect Apostolic, laid the foundation of Georgetown College. In November, 1791, he convened the first Synod in Baltimore. About that time he paid his first episcopal visit to New England and was shown great civility in Boston. Between 1791 and 1799 twenty-three French priests arrived in the United States, among them being Rev. John Lefebvre de Cheverus, after- wards consecrated first Bishop of Boston, Bishop Carroll accepted these priests, as soldiers in the little army organ- ized for the propagation of the Religion established by Christ, and with his augmented forces looked over the field, with Baltimore as a centre, and attempted to attend to the spiritual needs of the faithful, from Maine in the North, to Georgia in the South, and as far west as Michigan.
In the beginning of the nineteenth century the tide of immigration set in and as a proof of the strides the Catholic Church was making, the number of Catholics in New York increased from 100 in 1800 to 14,000 in 1807.
The Pope raised Baltimore to the dignity of an Arch- diocese in 1808, with four suffragan bishoprics, these being New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown, Kentucky. Bishop Carroll was appointed Archbishop on April 8, 1808, with the title of Most Rev. John Carroll, D. D., LL. D., Archbishop of Baltimore. .
Right Rev. John Lefebvre de Cheverus was conse- crated first Bishop of Boston April 8, 1808; Right Rev. Michael Egan, O. S. F., first Bishop of Philadelphia ; Right Rev. Benedict Flaget, first Bishop of Bardstown; Right Rev. Luke Conanen, O. S. D., first Bishop of New York. The last named was consecrated at Rome, but died at Na- ples on the cve of his departure for his diocese. The other three Bishops were consecrated by Archbishop Carroll.
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