DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP STEINS, S.J.

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1434, 10 September 1881, Page 2

DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP STEINS, S.J.

The gad intelligence of the death of His Grace Archbishop Steins, Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, was contained in a private telegram from Sydney on Wednesday to the Vicar-General Father Fynes, the message being as follows :—: — ' ' Archbishop Steins died this morning, happily.— Joseph Daltox, S.J." The Archbishop was in his seventy-second year, and had been in failing health for years. From an account of his life supplied to our Auckland morning contemporary we find that Dr. Steins was a native of Amsterdam, Holland, where he received his early education and training. He went out to the Indian mission field when a comparatively young man, and there laboured devotedly for twentyseven years, being Vicar Apostolic and Bishop of Bombay, and afterwards of Calcutta, where Father Downey, of Auckland, who had then pro-Vicar Apostolic jurisdiction of Eastern Bengal, became intimately acquainted with him. His Grace took a prominent part in the Vatican Council of 1870, when the dogma of Papal infallibility was formally adopted, and distinguished himself both as a theologian and as a linguist. He subsequently spent two years at Conflans, in France, the noviciate of the nuns of the Sacred Heart, Paris, some of the ladies of which order are now established at Tnnaru. While at Conflans his health — enfeebled by a long residence in India — became so far restored that he offered himself for fresh work, and the Holy See being about to settle on a biphop for Auckland appointed him to this diocese, rendered vacant by the return to Europe ot Bishop Croke. During his fifteen months' residence in Auckland Archbishop Steins untiringly devoted himself to tne spiriual wants of his flock, to the erection of new places of worship in the out districts, and to greatly increasing the accomodation at the educational institutions in connection with the Catholic Church. He endeared himself to the members of his communion, by courteous and kindly bearings, while he was highly respected by those of other creeds for the liberal and tolerant sentiments which h6 ever expressed in his relations with other sections of the religious community. As his complaint — disease of the liyer, nontr&cted in India — bet*an to assume a serious aspect, he decided, on the advice of his medical attendants, to return to Europe, via Australia. He was not, however able to proceed further than Sydney. His letters from there to the Vicar-Generel (Father Fynes) breathed a spirit of resignation and preparedness for his end, as well as an assured conviction that he would not recover, and concluded with a request that the clergy would offer up prayers on his behalf. During his lasfc illness he was tenderly and assiduously nursed at St. Kilda House, the house of his order, in Sydney, where he received every attention that could be proffered. Several gentlemen now in Auckland visited him there, to whom he expressed his satisfaction with all the surrounding arrangement*. During his pastoral visits to the Waikato the Venerable prelate gained the love and esteem of all, by his kindliness, and in this district his loss will be greatly deplored.