THE AMERICAN FLEET CATHOLIC CHAPTERS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 3, 6 August 1908, Page 10

THE AMERICAN FLEET CATHOLIC CHAPTERS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

(Concluded.) ' - • > - - With the overthrow of. James II. "an" uprising took place in every colony, and all privileges field 'by 'the Catholics were annulled; Goode headed the revolt in Maryland, Leister in New York. In Maryland the Anglican Church was established, the seat of Government changed, and the first Catholic Church seizedand closed. In New York, under' the Earl of Bellomorit, penal statutes were passed by which any priestremaming in, or coming to, the province after November i, 1700* should be deemed an incendiary and disturber of the peace, and subject to perpetual^ imprisonment; if he escaped and "was- taken he was to suffer death. ' Any person harboring a priest was to be fined In 1701 Catholics were prohibited from voting.' A similar Jaw was passed in In 1704 Maryland passed laws practically enacting the penal laws of England. First Catholic Church in Philadelphia. The year 1730 saw the establishment of St. Mary's, the first Catholic Church in Philadelphia, which was founded by Father Greaton, S.J., near Fourth and Walnut streets. In 174 i the church at Goshenhopen was founded by Father Schneider, S.J., one of the two who came -to instruct German immigrants. He travelled about as a physician when on the mission, and penetrated into New Jersey, celebrating Mass periodically at Salem . from 1744, although it was against the laws of the province. The history of French effort begins when, after the discovery of Canada by John Cabot, in 1497-though the real history dates from 1604, when Pierre dv Guast reached Nova Scotia and the Isle St. Croix. Here, within; the limits of the present State of Maine, the first Catholic chapel in New England was erected in July, 1604. This settlement was abandoned and removed to Port Royal, in 1605, where the Indians were daily visitors to the settlers' quarters. In 1610 -Father La Fleche arrived with Pontrincourt, and at once set to work. The Indian Chief Memberton, no years old, was baptised, and also all his family and clan. . _ First Mass in Canada. While the expedition of Blencourt had arrived in 1 611 ao . compamed by the Jesuits, Fathers Biard and Mass. Father , R>card sa,d Mass at, the mouth of the Kennebec River in October, 161 1 ; ,ts second offering in New England. In May, 1613, the settlement on Mount Desert Island wa* made, at Port StSauveur where the same two missionaries remained until Arfiai destroyed the colony. ™b<« - On April 13, 1608; Champlain sailed from Harfleur on his memorable voyage. His first' landing was at the Port of Tat doussac. Thence he journeyed "to the site of- the Indian village of Stadacone where was founded the City of Quebec. During their first winter they underwent privations of every sort, only e^ht surymng out oL tweny-eight, and still from tteir-poverty they gave food to the starving .Indians. Gradually the cXny grew, and w.th it increased the solicitude -of the Hon^S Champlain for. the welfare of the Indians/. -MiviL Hke S -beasts, without faith, without religion, without SJv ™* - .•-.rs.=;K,.S2sr,r.,T£

United States. When the English seized Quebec in 1629, the missionaries were taken into captivity. Jesuit Missionaries in Canada. " - With the restoration .of Quebec to France in .1632, Cardinal Richelieu sent -the Jesuits there. Quebec then became .a 'mission. Indians gathered there from evfcry part. They were tb "win over the savage hordes to Heaven. Peaceful, benign, beneficent "were the weapons of this conquest. . France armed to subdue, not by the sword, but by the cross ; not to 'overwhelm and crush the nations she invaded, but to convert, civilise, and embrace them'among her children. , Who "can define the Jesuits?" The story of their missions, is marvellous as a tale of chivalry, • or legends of the lives of the Saints. - - From Quebec -and Montreal, went .forth all, the missionaries for the next hundred years. Their remaining settlements of note were Tadoussac, Three Rivers, and Isle Orleans. The Archbishop of Rouen was their superior, and convents, hospitals, schools, and academies flourished in their two chief cities. Numerous were the expeditions on missionary effort to the present territory of the United States. In 1641 Fathers Kaymbaut and Isaac Jogues, accompanying a 'party of Chippewas, had reached Sault St. Marie in .-Upper Michigan, and preached the faith 10 2000 Indians. Father Jogues, the Hero and Martyr. On August I, n 1642, Father Jogues was for the first time captured, by the Mohawks and forced to accompany therrT t6 Ossernenon, their chief town. For weeks he was tortured witf> his companion, Rene Goupil, who was finally killed. The slave of the savages, forced to follow them in their expeditions, attending the prisoners at the stake and the sick, finally escaped and reached Fort Orange, whence he sailed on a ship for Manhattan Island. Here he received kindly treatment, and was sent to Holland. He had traversed New York State from north to south. The Dutch also welcomed Father Joseph Bressani, S.J., after he had undergone appalling torments at the hands' of the Mohawks, In 1644 Father Jogues again returned to Montreal, and in 1646 he was sent to ratify a treaty of peace with the Mohawks. He passed on his' wwasy s through Lake George, being the first white man to view it, to which he gave the name it long bore of ' Lac St. Sacrement.' Peace was established, and he returned to found a mission among the Mohawks, but was made captive by them, and on October 19, 1646, at Ossernenon; near Auriesville, was killed by the blow of a tomahawk. Thus end*i the first attempt at civilisation in New York, and thus died Isaac Jogues, one of the finest examples of Cathloic virtue which, this Western Continent has' seen. Meantime; to the roll of martyrs was added the names of Fathers Daniel; Brebeuf, Lalemant, Gamier, and Chabanol, victims of the Hurons, and others whose names are lost to history. All their deaths were accompanied by every horror that Indian ingenuity could devise. The Most Insuperable Difficulties Did Not Daunt the Intrepid Jesuits. Soon a more substantial result was "to be attained, and that in this State. Father Simon Le Moyne, S.J., starting in July, 1654, ascended the St. Lawrence, and reaching Onondaga (near Manllus), soon established the first chapel in New York under the name of St. John the Baptist. The "church ultimately built was known as St. Mary's of Ganenta. Missions were also established by Father Chaumont among the Cayugas, Senecas, and Oneidas. - n • - • By 1 668 missions were around Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior. But the work was to be extended further West, and by the intrepid Jesuits. Father Marquette ' accompanied Jollied on that memorable expedition sent' out to discover the * Pacific Ocean and the Mississippi River, March 17, 1673':- They set out with four men- in two can6es, with ohly^ndian corn and dried meat for provisions. THfough Lake Michigan and Green Bay and up the Fox R&er they pro6eeded, thence io the W\sconsm, and one month from their departure' they moved into ' the Mississippi River, to which' they gave the name of the Immaculate Conception. "__.-" --" • - For nearly a month they glided down the river preaching - to the vanous tribes-Illinois, Peorias, •' Morngohas, Dakota,*" Arkansas Having satisfied themselves that the river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, they retraced their course fillJwUh the account of new wonders for the attention of man. In ,675 F l7,t ?, Z^t MaSS in lUlnOis amo "g the Kaskaskrlt Father Marquette died, having wintered on the site of the presen «7 h , K ICag ° f ?^ l9 '' 1675 --' He WaS ° n] y 38 years of ag^, - and had been a Jesuit ai years. His fame will ever be ,£ '

served by that historic voyage which shed a new light on the topography of the West. . •* First Catholic Church in New York. .- Father Hennepin in 1673 beheld Falls, afid was ..the "first to give a description of this -'wonder.- A rock is still known a's ' Hennepin 's View.' This happened- on a voyage of exploration, during which, at Chippewa Creek, Father Hehnepin offered the first Mass sii Niagara, where a fort was afterward built and a chapel erected at Fort de Conn.- The first Catholic Church property" in" New York was land granted by La Salle to the Recollect Fathers at Niagara fJ May 27, 1679, for a residence and cemetery, and ' there Father Watteaux became the first' priest minister. ng to whites in the State.'. - N The pioneer church "in lower Michigan was that of St. Anthony of Padua, at the mouth of St> -Joseph's River, dating from 1679, a »d in the same year Father Hennepin arid two other priests built a chapei at Fort Crevecoeur, near where the present City of Peoria, 111., stands. From there Father ttennepin went up the Mississippi in a canoe, where- he was captured by the Sioux, and while, with tliem-.savv and named the Falls of St. Anthony." /-«Jor 111-fated Expedition^ of La Salle,. La Salle, on his ill-fated expedition to^Texas in 1685, erected Fort St. Louis, in Texas, near the present site of Corpus Christi. Here a chapel was erected, and remained in -active use until the destruction of ihe post by the Indians. Thus» in 1685, the vast ,field of French evangelisation extended from Isle St. Croix .- in -Nova Scotia, in the North-east, to the Falls, of St. Anthony ,_ _ -near Minneapolis, -Minn.; -in -the -West, and to .Fort St. Louis, Texas, , in the South, the Cross ■ was . exalted and • civilisation proclaimed. - ' . . . "*.•:*« The year 1706 is memorable because oPlhe death 'of^Rev. . J. B. de St. Cosme, the first American-born - priest- to fall a victim of the savages. „ Father""Charievoix, S.J.f -the Tiistpnan ~ of New France, made a tour of the Lakes and down/the rMississippi in V 1721- visited the various- missions. -.-.Meantime* in 17.18, the City of New Orleans- was commenced- by Bienville, j and^a chapel dedicated ■, to St., Ignatius, attended' by Father Anthony. Here in 1727.. was located by Mme.' Tranchepain the Ursuline Convent, the first- .convent of religious women iri the United States; the first in Canada dating to 1639, its foundress being the famous Mme. de la- Peltrie, Here in 1761, died Mary Turpin, the first American-bor-n nun. •'" ' -/""-S^- '

With the fall of Quebec in 1749, followed by -the Treaty - of Paris, 1763, ceding- New France. ,to England, was closed the chapter of one of the most inspiring recitals of devotion,, couragf, and unselfishness known to history.