Arohbishop MacHale.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4017, 12 November 1881, Page 3

Arohbishop Mac Hale.

A late cablegram informed us of the death of Archbishop Mac Hale, of Tuam. The following notice of the life of the Archbishop .has been furnished us :— On the 6th of March, 1791, John Mac Hale was born at Tubbernavium, in the Parish of Adragoole, County Mayo. Some men are born great, some men achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Of the second and more estimable class may be reckoned John Mac Hale. In his early days education was a boon withheld from Catholic youth by the State. Primary instruction was sought under difficulties, but these were mastered, and beneath the Jfepnin Mountain, soaring to the height of 2,640 feet above sea level, the mind of the future Archbishop of the West—the Lion of the Fold of Judab—received the instruction of the parish school. He was then sent to a classical school in Castlebar, and was in his eighth year when the Invasion of Ireland by the French, under General Humbert took place. Before the year 1795 no institution for preparing the Catholic ecclesiastical student of Ireland existed in that country. Catholic ecclesiastical students were obliged to seek in the .colleges and universities of Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal, the education denied them at home. It was supposed that, along with the learning which qualified them for their sacred calling, they imported sentiments and feelings hostile to England, and, therefore, not because they loved Ireland much, but that they loved Britain more, the British Government, in

1795, granted a sum of money, and established the Boyal College of St. Patrick, at Maynooth, in the County of Kildare. Many of the first Professors of Maynooth, as was unavoidable, were foreigners, and thus Dr Delahogue, Fellow of Sorbonne, was Emeritus Professor of Theology, and Francis Anglade, Professor of Moral Theology. Ihe studies were of uo light nature, and there was no lack of emulation on the part of the students. John MacHale greatly distinguished himself, and when, in 1814, the continual labors of nineteen years made the venerable Dr Delahogue need assistance, Mr Mac Hale, who in that year was ordained priest, was appointed to lecture in his place. He acquitted himself so completely to the satisfaction of the authorities of the college that when Dr Delahogue was able to resume his duties, Mr Mac Hale was appointed Professor of Dogmatic Theology. He filled this chair three years. The young Professor of- Dogmatic Theology was destined soon to wear a mitre. The Bishop of his native diocese, the Eight Key Dr Waldron, Bishop of j£j£)ala, needed help, and Dr Mac Hale Wb» selected as his coadjutor. He was consecrated by Archbishop Murray in the College Chapel of Maynooth, on the sth of June, 1825, being then in his thirty* fourth year, and in 1834 he succeeded Dr Waldron as Bishop of Kiliala. The ability with which he discharged bis episcopal duties, his zeal in the cause of creed and country, recommended him for still higher rank in the Church, When the lamented death of Dr Olivet O'Eelly left the Archdiocese of Taum vacant in 1834:, Bishop John Mac Hale, on the Bth of August of that year, beoame Archbishop in his stead. Some time ago the Archbishop figured in the World's gallery of celebrities. The sketch was on the whole sympathetically done, but as there is a great deal of it not new to Catholic readers, a few selected paragraphs will suffice for quotation:— " Dr Mac Hale is not a fluent, although he is an interesting, speaker. He preaches nearly every Sunday morning, often both in Irish and English, to his congregation. His efforts to keep alive his native Gaelic are sentimental in their gallantry. His learned leisure has been occupied with a metrical translation of the ' Iliad ' and a versical rendering of Moore's melodies into Irish, vicing in sonorousness and softness with the original. Moore manifested his appreciation iii a published letter, characteristically warm. " His daily life way be thus chronicled 1;

An early riser, the Archbishop usually officiates at the high altar at 8 o'clock, and after a simple breakfast, dovotes the forenoon to the administration of his large diocese. In the early afternoon he receives visitors, and later in the day may be met, clad in the usual ecclesiastical dross worn in these countries, walking or driving and accompanied by ono of his priests. An eaily and plain dinner is followed by an evening of seclusion, unless on those occasions when the presence of guests calls forth the geniality of the distinguished host, who enjoys nothing better than the company of that bon raconteur, Father Tom Burke, the well known Dominican preacher. "To the Government claim for the education of the |children of the state he always returned an unvarying non possumus But in his diocese he has not been unmindful of education according to his mind—that imparted by monks and nuns and in schools under the management of his priests. His annual visitation to these, necessitating journies ...of no little arduonsness for a man of his years, are so many triumphal progresses. Fleets of boats gay with bun.ting convey him to stormy Achill and distant Arran. The faithful peasantry of Mayo and Galway receive their high priest with genuine heartiness allied to a primitive reverence The sick are brought to be touched by his hands. It is not given to every man to see a statute erected to him while be yet lives; but even as the Athenians of old decrred statues of brass to those deserving well of the State, grata Connacia, in the words of the inscription onits pedestal, unveiled amidst a crowd of Irish notabilities, a white marble statute to its Archbishop on the occasion of his jubilee in the j episcopate. During the O'Connell centenary celebration the populace of Dublin singled out' the Lion of the Fold of Judah ' for ovation as the bishops, home and foreign, returned from tbe ceremonies in their pro cathedral." On the 6th of March 1880, his Grace attained the patriarchal age of 90 years, and the day was duly observed by bis priests and people, who presented congratulatory addresses. But he has departed from the scenes of his labours, and his place as a prelate and patriot combined will not be easily filled. In piety, energy, ability, and patriotism he had few equals, and the able manner in which, [duriDg his life, he defended the rights of Ireland and her people against all assailants, will cause his memory to be embalmed in tbe hearts of his grateful countrymen, who have heard the tidings of his death with feelings of the deepest sorrow.—R.I.P.