The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1871-06-18
First Annual Ordination at St. Mary's Diocesan
seminary.

The ingathering of the pristine fruits of this
nascent institution, at whose dedication, on
the 18th of last December, most of our readers
will remember to have had the pleasure of
assisting, it was our happiness to witness on
the mornings of Wednesday, Friday and Sat
urday last. For the perusal of the few of
our Catholic population who were deferred.
from participating in that imposing ceremony,
NO less than for that of those to whom the
name of st. Mary's Diocesan Seminary may
bode somewhat of mystery, we propose CIV
ing, as briefly as possible, the few details
We could CLEAN of its early history, Though
the idea of establishing Diocesan Seminary,
adjacent to the Archbishopric, in which young
men might be trained for the laborious duties
of the sacred ministry, under their own inn
mediate superintendence, had been long the
cherished hope of tho last two sainted Prelates
of this time-honored See, yet it was reserved
for the present iliustrious incumbent to sur
mount the many obstacles which thwarted the
realization of his no less energetic predecessors'
darling scheme, but which vanished before
his dauntless soul. Among the many other
ardaous laboFs whose execution Archbishop
Perche entrusted to the zeal of his indefati-
gable Administrator the eve of his depart
ure for the Eternal City, there was none to
which he attached greater Importance, or
which he commended more to his untiring
vigilance than the completion of the Diocesan
seminary. The last object which, perhaps, at
tracted the Archbishop's eye, as his archiepis-
copal mansion was fast sinking from his view,
was the crumbling walls of st. Mary's Church,
at whose modest altar had knelt many fellow
laborer, most of whom became the victims OF
their self-sacrifce, and whose remains now
moulders in alien earth, while on the scared
and scanty locks of the few who remain Times
hoar is too fast gathering, warning them
of their near approach to that mysterious
land, over whose immortal denizens
Death holds no sway. With what min
gled feelings, then, of joy and surprise
must not the Archbishop, on the morning after
his arrival, have looked on the tastefully laid
out garden which now ornaments the rear Of
his residence, hearing on the one side the
loud laugh of the playful children of st.
Mary's Parochial School, while beholding on
the other the towering walls of his Diocesan
Seminary proudly rearing themselves aloft and
browning the labyrinth which encircles his
palatial homel Truly must he then have
felt, feel satisfied he did, how well and
how faithfully his most ardent wishes had been
ealized, and well might he have eulogized theil
oislnterested interpreter as did the returning g
lord the faithful steward: "WeIl done, thou good
ana faithful se'rant, +" etc. brilliant and cloud
Aess MONDAY do we anticipate for institu
non whose dawn is SO bright aud suspicious
Long may ito venerable founder and his worthy
ooheague, husband its exaberant fruits and
send forth from its spacious halls countless
missionaries, the soundness of whose attain
ments' and the ardoF of whose zeal, we fee
assured from what eve have seen, will be il
nowiSe inferior to those of their esteemed
predecessors who have enShrined themselves