Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-03-18

their great national holiday with more
than the usual demonstrations, and the
hallowed anniversary was never welcomed
here by larger ooncourse than gathered
yesterday.
AT FENIAN HALL,
On College street, the Post Band appeared
in the morning at about half-past nine
| o'clock and a number of those stirring ma
tional airs 50 dear to the Irish heart, were
| played as the grand summons for the gath
ering of the multitude At half-past ten
o'clock, procession formed, and, the band
taking the lead, marched down College
street to Cedar, thence past Cherry TO
Summer street and arrived
AT THE CATHEDRAL
few minutes later. Here the sidewalks
were crowded with people, and a dense
throng was pouring into the church and
rapidly filling the long pews and the
galleries. The music ceasing for a short
space, beautiful procession OF Ihirty-two
little girls, clad in snow hite dresses, crown
ed with wreaths and wearing green sashes
and badges casped with gold, filed down
down Summer street entrance of st. Mary's
School, and crossing, entered the Cathedral.
As they moved up ihe steps, the band
again struck up, and the partially formed
procession followed on and into the church,
already becoming uncOmforlably crowded
with the tide of humanity which had
swept in.
The deep-toned organ rolled out its
great, heavy volumes Of solemn melody as
if an ocean of sound were sweeping over
limitless space, its detonations mingling
and commingling in beautiful harmony
with the rich vocal strains from splendid
! choir. After the usual preliminaries, came
the
ADDRESS OF BISHOP FEEHAN.
The address was listened to with that
marked attention which such men as Bishop
Feehan so readily command under all cir
cumstances, and though the types can give
little of the expression Of such discourse,
we append the substance of his remarks.
Taking the text, "Behold a great priest who
in his days pleased God, and was found |
just" he said:
These words, read in the Mass for to-day,
those solemn ceremonies, the multitudes |
assembled here, all proclaim that we cee- |
brate no ordinary festival. But it is one |
that TO you needs no explanation. Ii is in |
honor of st. Patrick, the apostle and pa |
iron of Ireland.
1t is one that enkindles all our faith |
that brings TO our minds the brightest |
memories, the fairest associations of the /
past-that brings us back TO other times /
and other scenes in a far-off land, where |
to-day, upon a thousand affairs, the name
of St. Patrick is pronounced with rever- |
ence; where, with the music of a thousand |
choirs, the prayers Of millions ascend to |
heaven, thanking God who sent the great |
Apostle and sealed the covenant with their |
their fathers.
No other national festival is 30 univer- |
sally celebrated, because no other people |
have been scattered as the Irish, and no |
other has 30 singuiarand eventful a history. |
To-day, from every portion of the globe, |
the hearts of the children of Ireland turn !
with yearning affection to that fairest isle |
of the ocean-their own beautiful mother. |
Love of country is one of the noblest |
feelings of the soul. And why should we |
not love Ireland? She has a history and |
glory of which even the spoiler could not |
rob her The memory of facts and the |
traditions Of people are imperishable, |
and there is more than sufficient evidence /
10 confirm the tradition that our forefathers |
came from the East-from Phenicia-
more than three thousand years ago, and |
that they were civilzed-hsd a written /
language-a regular government and lava. |
The first apostles of Christianity were per- |
secuted everywhere else-Ireland was a |
grand exception.
Ii would be pleasing to dwell on the |
glory and the civilization of ancient Ire |
land, if time permitted-if this were the |
proper place; bat must hasten to tell you |
of the change that came, and that brought |
with it brighter glory and higher civil |
ization.
A captive youth is guarding focks on |
the hills of Ulster, far from his own bright |
home, the sunny land of Gaul for this, |
most probably, was his birthplace. He is /
restored to home and kindred, and when |
we see him again the scene is changed in |
deed Behold the stranger on the hill of /
Tara, amid the assembled great ones of the |
nation. 1t is Patrick, once the captive |
now Bishop an Aposlate. He never |
forgot the scene of bis sutierings, the vision /
of his earlier years. At Rome, the city of |
Peter, he receives from God through Ce- |
lestiHe, the successor of Peter, his mission |
for the conversion of Ireland.
| need not dwell on details with which |
you are familiar | need not tell you of |
Tara and its Monarch, and its Druids and /
its multitudes who listened, and how with |
words sweeter than the murmurs of their |
fountains, he persuaded and convinced |
them. He made Erin the garden of the |
universe, the ornament of the Church of /
God, and he made her shine az light to |
the nations.
Among the great men of Christianity, |
St. Patrick holds a foremost and most |
prominent place. His coming to Ireland |
was one of those events that mark epochs /
in the history of nations, and the CONVEX
sion Of ireland to the faith was one of the |
grandest triumphs of the Church of God. |
The Island has continued faithful, and her /
children have borne the same faith TO the |
farthest ends of the earth.
The traveller of to-day finds scattered |
over the land the ruins of the glories Of |
the past, and the student of history fingers |
with delight on the pages that tell of st. |
Bridget aud her spiritual daughter, the |
true types of the traditional virtue OF the |
women Of that race.
We read of these Saints of the early |
times, whose names in Ireland are familiar
to the little children, and beyond the seas
We follow with emotion COLUMBIA and Co
lumbanus, and Kiliian and st. Gall and
Others, and we discover in them the genius
and poetry and the enthusiasm aud the
| lofty courage of the Celtic race aud they
prayed and preached and labored, and be-
came the Apostles and patrons of great
portion of Europe.
And the glory of these, her children, was
reflected on the mother that bore them,
and they placed diadem on her fair brow
aud she was hailed as Queen by the ma
ions.
h Ii wac a brilliant chapter in our coun-
try's history, and | would wish to close the
| narrative here, for scenes of after times
! come before me, which exhibit the land
convulsed, the storm gathering then burst
ing in its fury, and the sun of Erin's glory
seems setting in seas Of blood.
The Dane came, the pirate sea king
| from the North. But there came a later
| time, and a more powerful and more un-