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CHAPTER XVIII.

ARCHBISHOP CHARLES JOHN SEGHERS AND MONTANA.

Sometimes after his appointment as Coadjutor to the Archbishop of Oregon--who at this date was likewise the Administrator of the Vicariate of Idaho, which comprised also western Montana--Archbishop Seghers set out to visit the whole of the Vicariate, and came into our territory first in 1879m and again in 1882. Both times His Grace went from one settlement to another and through every mining village, administering the sacrament of Confirmation to quite a number of people, adjusting religious mattes and looking into the spiritual wants of every place.

Authorized by the Vicar apostle of Nebraska under whose jurisdiction lay the Vicariate of Montana, that is to say, the eastern part of our territory (see Ecclesiastical Organization of Montana, above, Chapter II) he honored Helena with his presence, and confirmed, September 21, thirty-eight persons in the Church of the Sacred Hearts. In the evening he delivered a lecture on education which made a deep impression on the whole community.

Archbishop Seghers was no less favorably impressed with Montana and her people than has been Bishop O'Connor, and this favorable impression, resting on his personal observations through several months, made him conceive a great interest in the spiritual welfare of the country. He espoused Montana's cause before the Holy See, and by his representations and advocacy, the whole territory was first united into one Vicariate, and then, just one year later, made into an Episcopal See.

The untimely and tragic death of this apostle Prelate is still fresh in every mind. Burning with zeal for the conversion of the Indians of Alaska, he resigned the Archiepiscopal See of Oregon to return to his form diocese of Vancouver Island. "Adieu, dear Bishop," wrote he on July 6 to his friend, Bishop Brondel, "I leave for Alaska, and God knows when, and whether

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I shall ever return. Pray for me." On the 13^th of the same month he set out for that frozen country, and while in his tent, some sixty miles from all habitation, the nearest point being Nulato, about 6 o'clock a. m., November 28, he was murdered by his attendant.

The Archbishop was sleeping between two Indian guides on the one side, and his white attendant, one Fuller, on the other. The murderous wretch, who had appeared very restless during the night, and had been asked by His Grace why he did not go to sleep, got up early that morning to rekindle the fire. Shortly after he went out, took the gun from the sleigh and returned. He now roused his victim, who woke up only to see the flash of the gun, which the assassin held pointed at him. The very same instant the doomed Prelate crossed his arms over his breast and lifted his eyes heavenward. Though shot close to the heart, he remained in the sitting position which he had taken on waking, a few seconds, just long enough for the murderer to think him still alive, and to attempt to fire a second time. Upon this, the two Indians sprang upon the assassin to disarm him, and the Archbishop fell over.

Al this took place very quickly; the two Indian guides who were eye-witnesses of the tragedy saw it finished before the realized what was occurring.

The body of the murdered Prelate was arranged b y the two Indians and brought by them to Fort St. Michael, where July 16, 1887, it was temporarily buried. The remains were disinterred September 11, 1888, and taken on board the U. S. warship Thetis, in charge of Lieut. Commander Emory, who conveyed them to Victoria, Vancouver Island.

An inquest held over the body by two physicians of the place revealed that death had been caused by a bullet wound over the left breast, cutting the main artery a little above the heart. On November 16, after moist impressive obsequies, at which Bishop Brondel, of Helena, Montana, delivered a most touching funeral oration, the body of the martyr Archbishop was consigned to its permanent resting place, prepared to receive it in a vault beneath the Cathedral.

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The lamented Prelate was last seen in Helena in March, 1885, when after an extended journey through Europe he was returning to his See of Victoria, to which he had been re-appointed at his own request. He was then the guest of his friend, Bishop Brondel, for a few days, and celebrated Pontifical High Mass in the Cathedral, March 19, he Feast of St. Joseph. In the evening, clad as an Alaskan, he appeared in the same Cathedral before large audience and pleaded ina very interesting lecture the cause of his favorite Mission of Alaska, which he was preparing to revisit and for which ah ear later he was to lay down his life.

With is tribute of respect and gratefulness paid to his memory, let us now proceed and speak of the church in Montana as organized through his endeavors. We shall introduce the chief Pastor with whose appointment the organization was perfected and formally inaugurated.