CHAPTER XXVII.

NECROLOGY, PRIESTLY AND RELIGIOUS VOCATIONS. SOME EXEMPLARY CHRISTIANS.

Several of the departed laborers who were instrumental in establishing and advancing Catholicity in Montana have been duly referred to in the course of this narrative as required by the occasion. Hence, not to repeat the already written, we shall now mention those only whose death has not yet been recorded.

Fathers and Brothers of the Society of Jesus.

The first of the number is Father Peter De Vos, whom we have met coming to the mountains in company with Lord Stuart. He resided but a short time at St. Mary's, whence he went down to the lower country and sometimes later on to California. He died at Santa Clara, April 17, 1859, aged sixty-nine, having passed thirty-four years in the Society.

The second in order is Father Louis Vercruysse, who labored for some time at St. Ignatius, whence in 1863 he was transferred to California. A couple of years or so after he returned to Belgium, his native count, and there ended his days.

On the news of his death being received at St. Ignatius, Mass was offered up for the repose of his soul, all the Indians of the village receiving Holy Communion in his behalf. One of their number appeared exceedingly surprised at the news of the Father's death. On being asked the reason of his unwonted surprise, "I did not know," said he, "that you black robes also die." On being further asked how he came to fancy that Black Robes did not die, "Because," said He, "you keep for yourselves the good medicine which holds death away from you, whereas,

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to us poor Indians you give medicine that is itenemus (worthless) and let us die."

Whether that redskin was sincere or not in his professed ignorance, we cannot say. If sincere, he must not have heard of the death of Father Zerbinatti, which had occurred some years before at St. Mary's. But we are tempted to suspect that, though a benighted son of the forest, he also had somehow a touch of the spirit of the "evil one," which prompts so many white-skinned cousins of his to pick at and revile the priesthood.

Third on the list is Father James A. Vanzini, who, as we have seen, did missionary work at St. Ignatius, Hell's Gate, Frenchtown and Virginia City. From Montana he went to Colville, Washington, where he labored with zeal and efficiency for several years. He slept in the Lord the morning of June 19, 1880, and was laid to rest in the Mission church, near Colville. Whites and Indians alike mourned heartily his passing away, as all looked on Father Louis, the name they knew him by, as a man of God.

Father James A. Vanzini was born in Lombardy, Italy, August 15, 1823, and of his fifty-seven years of life, twenty-six were devoted to God's service in the Society of Jesus, which he entered January 15, 1855. He came to Montana in 1862.

Father Gregory Gazzoli, whom we met at the Coeur d'Alene Mission, at St. Ignatius, and also at St. Peter's was a Roman, and came to the Rocky Mountains in 1855. His missionary life was mostly devoted to the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Coeur d'Alene Indians, and from their midst he went to his reward, May 10, 1882. He was born in the Eternal City, August 6, 1837, and lived forty-five year s of his life in the Society.

Father Joseph Giorda ended his days at the Coeur d'Alene Mission, his death having occurred August 4, 1822, not quite three months after the passing away of Father Gazzoli. Born at Cumbeviana, in the Province of Turin, Italy, March 19, 1823, he entered the Society of Jesus March 29, 1845. Shortly after his ordination tot he priesthood, he went as a missioner to the island of Corsica, whence he was recalled a year or so later and sent to the Seminary of Bertinero, in Emilia, Italy. He there taught dogmatic and moral theology, being at the same time the

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spiritual director of the institution. In 1854 he returned to Corsica, but his departure from the Seminary of Bertinero was so much regretted that scarcely one year afterwards he had to return. There he remained till 1859, when he was sent to the Missions of the Rocky Mountains, reaching his destination the following year, 1860.

After Father De Smet, our Indian Missions are indebted to no one more than to Father Giorda, as he can be called in all truth, their second founder. He took charge of them at a most critical period, during which he governed them with great zeal, foresight, tact and self-abnegation, a model Superior, as well as an example of Christian virtue, winning the esteem and love of all alike, prelate, priest, layman white and Indian.

The Indians called Father Giorda Mil'kokan, which means round head. But while conspicuously so, physiologically, he was a remarkably square-headed man otherwise; and, like Father De Smet, he will ever stand out as one of the most prominent figures in the history of Catholicity, not in Montana alone, but throughout the whole of this northwestern country.

Another of the pioneer missionaries in Montana was Father Urban Grassi. Stricken down by pneumonia at Umatilla, Oregon, he went to his Maker March 21, 1890, after a brief illness. He was one of the most efficient and most indefatigable workers on the Indian Missions. Born at Girola, in the Province of Voghera, Italy, November 25, 1830, he entered the Society of Jesus December 5, 1850, and three years later came to America, spending a couple of years in St. Louis, Mo. In 1855 he went to California, and there he taught till 1861, when he came to the mountains.

Father Grassi had charge of the Mission of St. Ignatius for several years, and for some three years also of all the Missions in the capacity of Vice-Superior. To him is due the credit of building the first two churches for the whites in Montana, and of sending Jesuit Fathers to both Helena and Virginia City. The last years of his missionary life were spent among the Indians along the Columbia and at the Umatilla Mission, whence, as said above, he went to receive the crown won by his apostolic labors.

Of the departed Brothers of the Society who lived for a time

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in Montana during the period of our history, and who within the same period have ended their course whilst on duty elsewhere, four are still to be mentioned.

The first is Charles Huet, one of the founders of St. Mary's Mission, as well as one of the first to receive the reward of his toil, having finished his course comparatively young. He died at the Coeur d'Alene Missions, May 31, 1856, aged fifty-one and after living twenty-one years in the Society.

The three others are Francis Huybrechts, Michael McGean, and Natalis Savio. Of these, the first two passed some years at St. Ignatius, when they were transferred to the Mission of the Sacred Heart among the Coeur d'Alene, and there both ended their days, Francis Huybrechts, April 6, 1872, at the ripe age of seventy-five, Michael McGean, October 28, 1877, in his sixty-fifth years, the former having lived thirty-eight, the latter forty-two years in the Society.

Brother Savio resided first at St. Mary's then for a while at St. Ignatius. He died in California at the age of seventy-seven, January 19, 1891. While Brother McGean was mostly occupied in farming and tending stock, Brother Francis Huybrechts possessed the skill of a trained mechanic, and some furniture manufactured by him is still doing today good service at St. Ignatius.

It goes without saying that they were one and all-good religious men, for otherwise, they could not have endured the privations of their long missionary life among the Indians. It is history, however, that whilst in the Rocky Mountains brother Savio wavered in his vocation. But it is also history that he soon repented his error and inconstantly, and had been fifty-seven years a Jesuit Brother at the time of his death.

One and all may these pioneers of Catholicity in Montana rest in peace.

Departed Sisters.

After those of the stern sex, it is but just that we should recall the pioneer workers of the gentler sex, those brave women who in their own sphere have done their part in furthering the cause of Catholicity in Montana, and who also, like the former, whether on duty among us or elsewhere, have ended their course during the period of our chronicle.

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The death of Sisters Paul Miki and Remi, of the Order of Providence, has been recorded before. The following, whose passing away is now to be mentioned, were all members of the Leavenworth Sisterhood.

Sister Cleophas heads the list. She came to Montana in 1872, and finished her course at t. John's Hospital, Helena, February 11, 1883. She was a hard and cheerful worker, and the first of the Order to die in our midst.

She was followed a year after by Sister Mary Xavier, who also came to Montana in 1872, and who, after doing duty at Helena and Deer Lodge, went to Butte, whence the Heavenly Bridegroom, with hardly an premonition of her good fortune, summoned her to Himself, July 1, 1884. She will be remembered as one of the Brave Sisters who volunteered to nurse the wounded on the battlefield of Big Hole.

The third to be called away from our midst was Sister Mary Paul, who slept in the Lord at Deer Lodge, March 22, 1886; a favorite soul, much beloved by the pupils confined to her care at St. Vincent's, Helena, and at St. Mary's, Deer Lodge.

Sister Francis De Sales is still mourned by companions and pupils at St. Vincent's Academy, whence pneumonia carried her off December 11, 1887, after a very brief illness. While gifted, scholarly, uncommonly bright and refined, as well as a favorite with all who knew her, she was, above all, a woman of solid piety and true religious spirit.

The last of the Order to end her days in our midst before the closing year of our narrative was Sister Basilissa, who had the happy secret of winning the hearts of the little people placed in her keeping. Youthful in age, but mature in wisdom, she died in Helena, November 24, 1891.

These pious and noble women spent part of their precious lives among us, teaching our youth, nursing our sick, and spreading round about them "the sweet odor of Christ" by the example of their virtue. Their remains repose in Helena soil; and who knows but, instruments as they were of so many heroic acts of religion and charity, they are also a better and more stolid foundation for the city's permanency and prosperity then brick and stone, nay, then even silver and gold? For, after all,

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it is not on mere material assets alone that the upbuilding and prosperity of communities depend.

Another still to be mentioned is Sister Donat, nee Maria J. Cote, of the Order of Providence, although she came to Montana only to die. She took to her cot the day of her arrival at Missoula, brought down by that dreadful scourge, the smallpox, the germs of which she carried with her from Montreal, where the distemper was raging at the time of departure. If we grieved beyond expression at her taking away, we were still more edified by the heroic resignation of that youth soul, tasting bitter death with a smile. She was only a few days pass twenty-one when, September 19, 1885, she returned to her Maker to perpetuate above the bloom of her young.

Let us now refer to the departs Sister who labored on this field previous to the close of 1891, and who also previous to the same day, or shortly after, have passed away, but elsewhere than in Montana.

Sister Regina has already been referred to before, and to her must be joined several other members of the same Sisterhood, namely, sisters Bernard Mary, Helena, Mary Margaret, and Modesta, who followed her at different dates. All these pioneer workers of the gentler sex went to their repose outside of Montana. So did also Sister Mary Victor of the Order of Providence and the first Superior of the Missoula Foundation, who ended her course at Montreal, August 3, 1879.

May they all rest in peace and may perpetual light shine upon them!

The places left vacant by these pioneer workers, men and women, have been filled by new recruits, but all so far, from foreign climes, and the same distant nurseries that have supplied the first laborers have had likewise to further their successors.

Montana is perhaps too young a community still to give Levites to the altar and Religious to the cloisters. As with the date-palm, which is very slow growth and barren of fruit in other but tropical warmth, so with vocations to the priesthood and religious life. They are slow to form, and do not germinate save ina high spiritual temperature, and new communities have not been

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Shone upon by sun of supernatural charity long enough to bear the previous kind of fruit, or bring it to maturity.

Perhaps also, our Montana people have still too strong a hankering for the gold and silver that brought them into the country.

With regards to vocations, we find no one called to the priesthood from Montana during the period covered by our narrative; except the Very Rev. P. J. Stockman, of Hollywood, California, who for a time taught school in the Missouri Valley in the early sixties. He was advised and persuaded to become a priest by Father Giorda, who discovered in the young man qualifications that well fitted him for the high calling. Acting on the advice given him, young Stockman went to California, where he entered the priesthood, and where he has seen active service in the ministry ever since.

There are several, however, who embraced the life of the Evangelical Counsels; but, with the exception of one, though they went forth from Montana, they were not born in the state. Three of the number belonged to the sterner sex and were James Henneberry, of Beaverhead County; Patrick Harrick, one of the early Montana miners; and John Donnigan, who mined for some time at old Diamond City. All three became Coadjutor Brothers of the Society of Jesus, which they entered, the first, August 16, 1866; the second, February 15, 1867; and the last mentioned, September 8, 1873.

Of the gentler sex, the first to follow the higher life of the Counsels was Annie Brown, who lived for some time at Gold Creek, Deer Lodge County, where her father conducted a store. She first attended school at St. Ignatius, then at St. Vincent's Academy, Helena, and in November, 1874, joined the Sisters of Leavenworth, her name in religion being Sister Bernadette.

Kate Hawkes, now Sister Laurentia, entered the same Community some to years after. She was followed, in 1887, by Mary Reynolds, Sister Mary Remigius; and, sometime later on, by three other young ladies, Kate and Mary Murphy, two sisters and M. McAuliffe, named respectively in religion, Sisters Mary Ida, Ivo and Bernard Mary.

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Later still, two other young ladies entered the same Sisterhood, Josephine Mieble, who took the name of Sister Mary Benedict, and Mary Lynch, whose religious life closed matured, when hardly opened, for she died when still a novice, and made her profession her deathbed under the religious name of Sister Mary Baryl.

Catherine Caplice, now among the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, Sisters Cecilia, Mary, Martha and Ursula, who joined Ursuline Order, and also sister Mary Victor, who entered the Holy Cross Community, belong likewise to the select band that left genealogists and went forth from Montana to serve God in religion.

The last to be mentioned is Mary Kelly, who was born in Nevada Creek, May 16, 1872, and joined the Sisters of Leavenworth, November 6, 1891. Her name in religion is Sister Mary Sira. She is the very first, and so far, the only Montana-born youth who has been called to embrace the Counsels. A young man, born also in Montana, became a religious at an earlier date, but did not persevere in his vocation. Others, also Montana-born, have consecrated themselves to God in the priesthood or religion, but as has been pointed out above, subsequently to the period covered by our narrative.

To the few who have thus chosen the better part, by embracing the life of the Counsels, we now add those also who, walking in the way of the Commandments, have "edified the brethren in the faith" by their thoroughly Christian conduct. And praised be the Lord! that their number is not limited to a few only, notwithstanding the difficulties encompassing the practice of religion, and virtue in what still goes under the name of "the wild and woolly west." Let us at least refer to such among them who deaths were as happy as their lives were edifying.

True, they were not born n or reared in Montana, but they lived among us for a number of years; they edified us by their virtues and good example, and if not from Montana by birth, they became Montana's by death, having ended their days in our midst, and their remains reposing in Montana soil. But as we must hasten to bring our work to an ending, we can refer to no more than three or four of these exemplary Christians, with whose sterling worth we were made better acquainted by

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Several years' experience s their spiritual director. We here refer to Margaret Hanratty, Mary Flanagan and Ellen Nagle, three remarkable women, each of whom exemplified in herself the valiant woman described in Pro. XXXI, and who price, as declared therein, as of things brought from afar off and from the uttermost coasts.

Margaret Louisa Hanratty was born in St. Louis, Mo., December 23, 1821. She married quite young and was left a widow after bringing forth two sons and one daughter. She came to Montana with the latter, Mrs. C. D. Curtis, in 1872, and died the death of the just among us, October 13, 1882, after a long and painful sickness which she bore to the last with patient, cheerful endurance.

Mary Flanagan, born in the south of Ireland, came to America in the thirties. She first lived in New York, and then for a time in Iowa. The fruits of her marriage were a son, M. J. Flanagan, of Fort Benton, and a daughter, Mrs. Mary Power, the accomplished wife of Hon. T. C. Power, U. S. Senator from our state. She came to Montana in 1869 and resided at Fort Benton with her daughter for several years. Later on she moved to Helena, and here, August 14, the Vigil of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady, went to her rest. Of a retiring and most unassuming disposition, no one ever cared less for the glittering, but hollow and empty shams of life than she, while her Catholic sense was no less wonderfully keen than practical. Ellen Healy or Nagle, being the latter by marriage, was born in Brooklyn, New York, June 6,. 1826. The family moved first to Chicago, when that metropolis of the West was in its infancy, then to Beloit, Wisconsin, and lastly to Galen, Illinois, where Ellen married George Nagel, a worthy son of Kerry, Ireland, their marriage being blessed June 10, 1884, in St. Michael's Church, by the Rev. Petiot, the Pastor. Later on, she passed to Sinsinawa Mound, Wisconsin, where she lived up to 18843, at which date she came to Montana. Her marriage was blessed with ten children, four sons and six daughters, two of the number, a boy and a girl, dying in infancy. Two of her sons and five daughters live in our midst and are well and favorably known by the whole community.

She passed away in this city November 22, 1890, going to join her husband, whom she laid to rest November 22, 1888,

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just two years later. The just walketh in his simplicity shall leave behind him blessed children; words of Holy Writ, which could well be applied to George and Ellen Nagle and to their sons and daughters.

The last we shall mention is Matilda Galen, whose death occurred also in this city, December 27, 1891. She was born of James Gillogly and Ellen Burke, in the county of Fermanagh, Ireland, September 7, 1837. Having married, in 1860, Hugh Galen, the couple lived for a while in Idaho, whence they came to Montana in the fall of 1866. Matilda Galen was a woman of sterling worth and more than ordinary industry, while her devotedness to the cause of religion, as well as her many deeds of kindliness and mercy toward the needy and sorrowing will ever make her memory both revered and gratefully cherished.

And here we may well put on record the following; it is worth while, throwing as it does, no little sidelight on this part of our subject.

Hurriedly summoned to the bedside of a sick person some twenty miles from Helena, the writer and the physician, both having been called out at the same time, wee riding in the same conveyance, the doctor's own carriage. The physician was a leading member of the profession, a non-Catholic, and stood high also in Masonic circles. "Father," he said, "I am glad to have your company, as for a good while I have been wishing to meet you." then he continued; "I must tell you, Father, that I have been for many years a believer in total depravity, convinced that there was not, nor could there be among human beings such a thing as honesty and virtue, so-called virtue being nothing more than a matter of environment and expediency. But since I began to practice my profession I have been forced to change my mind on the subject, for I have found true, real virtue among your Catholic women."

His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, has written a most useful and very popular book, The Faith of Our Fathers. Yes, candidly, we are under the impression that not in Montana only, but in a very other place as well, there would be very little of the faith in our fathers but for the faith of our mothers.