CHAPTER XXV.

FATHER CAMILLUS IMODA. FATHER JAMES BOUCHARD. HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL JAMES GIBBONS IN HELENA. MISSIONS BY THE REDEMPTIONIST FATHERS.

The first event that we must chronicle in opening this chapter is a sad one, namely, the death of Father Camillus Imoda, which occurred at the Episcopal residence in the night of June 7 and 18, 1886.

Father Imoda had returned to Helena in the fall of 1883 to assist the rt. Rev. Bishop Brondel in the discharge of parish and missionary duties at the Cathedral. His health had been impaired by exposure and the many hardships he ha endured on the Indian Missions, and, as a consequence, for some years back he had become subject to occasional attacks of inflammatory rheumatism. These caused him at times intense pain, yet he never relented in the performance of duty and, notwithstanding his sufferings, he was always ready to indulge in an innocent joke.

The Sunday that preceded his death as he was the only priest at the Cathedral, he attended to all the services alone, that is, after hearing several confessions, he read the eight o'clock Mass and sand the late Mass at 10:30, preaching at both Masses. He presided at Sunday School, held from two to three in the afternoon and also gave an instruction to the children and officiated against Vespers and Benediction in the evening. I will come to thee as a thief, and thou shall not now at what hour I will come to thee was the text of his evening instruction, the fourth and last for the day, as well as the last of his life.

The following Thursday, in the afternoon, he spent some hours with the architects and contractors of the new Episcopal residence, laying out the grounds, examining plans, etc., and attended in the afternoon to some business in town. Toward evening he

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appeared to be suffering more than usual and consulted Dr. Morris, who prescribed some stimulating liniment to relieve the pain. Later on, the same evening, he complained of his pain to Brother Megazzini, who made the remark. "Father, it may strike the heart." "As God wills," replied Father Imoda with a smile.

He had retired to rest when Father Pauwelyn came to him shortly after 10 o'clock and the two Fathers were together for a while, hearing each other's confession. This was the last time he was seen alive.

Knowing well that the Father needed rest, his not rising in the morning at the usual hour for Mass created no apprehension on the good Brother's mind. Later on, however, as repeated calls and knocks at the Father's door elicited no response, the Brother became alarmed. He now called the architect of the Bishop's house, who stood only a few years off giving direction to the workmen and the two raised up the sash of the front window to the Father's room, the door being locked from the inside, to explore the situation. On first seeing the Father they thought he was sleeping, but he pay on his cot cold in death, though his countenance bore the peaceful expression of one asleep.

The sad news spread through the city quickly and was a shock to the whole community. On the body being examined by Dr. Morris and other physicians, the immediate cause of the Father's death became apparent. A clot of blood had been forming near the heart and now becoming detached from the spot that held it, closed the artery like a plug, preventing circulation. In the opinion of the doctors, death was instantaneous and comparatively painless.

The body was embalmed and lay in state in the Bishop's residence for several days. The Father's obsequies, held June 22, were attended by most of the clergy of the diocese and by as many of the faithful as could crowd into the Cathedral. The remains were laid to rest ina brick vault in the rear of the church and over the one which contained the body of Father Philip Rappagliosi. Thus, these two missionaries of the Blackfeet Indians lie at rest in the same crypt beside each other, while two marble tablets on the eat wall of the sacristy and just above

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them, perpetuate their memory among the living. The tablets have been placed there by order and at the expense of the rt. Rev. Bishop.

We need not give any extended notice of Father C. Imoda, after all we have said of him in our chronicle. He was known throughout the length and breadth of Montana as one of the pioneers of the Northwest, his efficient missionary labors among the Indians and the whites having endeared him alike to both the former and the latter and gained him the reverence and love of everyone.

Of a respectable family and one of several brothers he was born in Turin, Italy, November 29, 1829, and entered the Society of Jesus, April 22, 1854, in which he had been preceded by his brother Henry, at one time Superior of the Jesuit Missions in California. He made his novitiate at Massa-Carrara, in the Duchy of Modena, where we became first acquainted with him in 1855. Having asked to be sent to the Indian Missions of the Rocky Mountains, he left Italy soon after and rounding Cape Horn on a sailing vessel, landed in California after a six months voyage. In 1859, he came into what is today the State of Montana and here he lived and toiled up to the moment that the Master bade him rest from his labors.

Father C. Imoda was one of the few members of the human family of whom it is said: sortit sunt animam bonam. He was always ina cheerful frame of mind, while meekness of spirit and gentleness of manner appeared to be with him a second nature. In the many years we lived with him we never saw his remarkably calm temper ruffled by even as much as a ripple. But whilst meekness and cheerfulness appeared to be the characteristics of his happy disposition, his fidelity and constancy in the performance of duty, no less than exactness to the smallest detail in his every action, were admired even by worldly people. Father C. Imoda is gone to his rest, but he still lives among us in his work and the examples of his virtues.

Shortly after the sad event just recorded, Father James Bouchard, so well known al over the Pacific Coast as a zealous missioner and eloquent speaker, arrived in Helena, having come

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at the invitation of the Rt. Rev. Bishop for the purpose of giving retreats and missions throughout the Diocese. He commenced his apostolic labors by opening July 4 a ten days' mission in the Cathedral. He then passed to other places, spending two months and a half in this ministry and meeting, through God's goodness and mercy, with gratifying results wherever he labored. He returned a year after and spent several weeks among our people reaping, with God's blessing, no less fruit from his preaching than he had on the previous occasion,.

In the early part of the following October Helena was favored by the presence of a Prince of the Church, His eminence James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. It had become known that His Eminence would pass through Montana sometime in the fall, on his way to Portland, Oregon, to confer the sacred Pallium on His Grace, William Gross, the Metropolitan of that See. Bishop Brondel invited the Cardinal to rest awhile in Helena during his long journey to the coast. He consented, reaching Helena on the evening train, October 4, with Dr. Chapelle of St. Matthew's Church, Washington, D. C., as his traveling companion.

Met at the depot by a committee of gentlemen of the congregation, the Cardinal was driven to the Episcopal residence. As it is wont to happen on occasions out of the ordinary the smoothness of the proceedings was disturbed somewhat through the misplacing of the luggage of the travelers.

In the meanwhile the Cathedral had been filled to capacity with expectant people, all anxiously waiting for the appearance of the Cardinal. His Eminence finally recovered his valise and clad in his cardinalitial robes soon appeared within the sanctuary. His canonical reception over, he was introduced to the vast assembly by Bishop Brondel ina few choice words. His Eminence replied ina brief address.

Having returned to the Episcopal residence, the Hon. Martin Maginnis, on behalf of the Helena congregation, greeted the Cardinal with an address of welcome, both eloquent and hearty:

These mountains and valleys in which we receive you are not strangers to the Church which you represent. Its zealous missionaries, who have explored every range of mountains, crossed every desert and traversed every sea in genealogists, did not leave these

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wilds alone to their savage inhabitants. They were here before us all; of the first comers they were the first; of all old-timers they were the oldest. They came not in search of gold and silver nor of gain, now for the cattle on the hills or the sheep in the fold, but inspired by the love of God, and guided by the Star of Bethlehem which still shines in pious hearts, above the clouds of error, unbelief and worldliness, came to bear the blessings of religion to the benighted hearts of their fellow men. Even in this material age when the love of gold and place and honor are the ruling motives, the worst of us can recognize the higher natures and sublimed aspirations which sacrifice the selfishness of the heart on the altar of humanity.

His eminence listened intently to the address and was noticed to nod approvingly time and again at this or that allusion of the speaker to the influence of Catholicity on American progress. After the Cardinal's reply filled with kind words and redolent of patriotism, the company dispersed to congregate again the next day, when a formal and largely attended reception was tendered the distinguished visitor. His Eminence started westward on the evening train, leaving after him pleasing and grateful recollections and being himself not only favorably impressed with Helena and her people, but to quote his own words: "struck with the substantial evidence of their enterprise."

The visit of Cardinal Gibbons was followed by what may be truly designated as two years of grace, and now for Helena alone, but for the whole of Montana. A and of zealous Redemptorist Fathers, led by Father McLoughlin, arrived from St. Louis, Mo., and for over two months were engaged in missionary work throughout the whole diocese, commencing with a two-weeks' mission preached in Helena. The year after another bank of the same Order, led by Father McLoughlin, came to give a "renewal" of the preceding mission. They cultivated the same field, and their labors, through God's grace, were attended on both occasions with more happy results.

Father McLoughlin, C SS. R., as well as Father Bouchard, S. J., have since passed away. May their souls rest in peace; and may likewise those of our Montana people who have been benefited by the zeal and work of the two missionaries never forget these benefactors of their souls.