The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1888-08-25
The MISSIONS IN AFRICA.
Foundation and Progress Of Mission
Work in Sierra
Leone.
EDUCATING YOUTHFUL PAGANS.
It is Impossible to Relate in a Short
Sketch All the Good That Has
Been Accomplished.

Sketch All the Good That Has
Been Accomplished.
The foundation Of the Catholic Mis-
sion of Sierra Leone dates from the year
1859. It is true that some Catholic mis-
sionaries alighted on those shores from
time to time to administer the sacra.
ments to a few abandoned Catholics
who resided in and around FreeJoWn.
Those poor Christians, deprived as they
were of the consultations of religion,
eagerly longed for Catholic priests, not
only TO visit them, but to walk among
them and take upa permanent abode IN
their midst Their prayers were heard,
and in tine month of February, 1859,
those poor forlorn Christians hailed
with delight the arrival of six mission.
ary priests to their shores. They were
members of the Society Of African Mis-
sions, whose head centre is in Lyons,
and the theatre OF its action chiefly ON
the West African Coast. But this brave
little phalanx was not long destined to
brave the storm. The mining effects Of
foreign cline and burning sun; the
fevers of the West African Coast; the
epidemics of Sierra Leone; the warning
rage of the African demon-al! COM
bine6 to thin their ranks. The brave
missionaries dropped down one by one
in The epidemic that just broke out.
Only a few months interviewed between
their joyful arrival and their much la
mented death. An interval Of five
years then elapsed before the arrival Of
a second missionary contingent to those
fayerstricken shores. This time it was
not The society of Lyons that again un-
dertook the ar0uous labors Of the Sierra
Leone Mission; it was the Society ct
the Holy Ghost and Immaculate Heart
of Mary that resumed the work. 1t
was to its missionaries Chat the Holy
See henceforti, conhded that Mission
Two fathers OF this Society landed in
Sierra Leone in 1864, to resuscitate the
Mission of Freetown and administer
the Sacraments to the feW Catholics who
were deprived of the consultations Of re-
ligion for FIVE years. The first habita-
tion of the two missionaries was in pro-
portion to their means, very modest,
and, although small. its few apartments
had to serve as q dwelling, a chapel,
and school. The first Sunday the COM
gregatlon numbered only fifteen, next
year they were fifty. For eighteen
months the two missionaris worked
with zeal and with success, until a
pernicious fever deprived the Superior
OF his only companion, and he is left
alons--the only priest in the newly
commenced Mission. The increasing
number Of conversions necessarily re-
quired more spacious place Of worship.
The work was undertaken, a subscrip-
ton opened, which realized little more
than hundred pounds. In September
a new church MAS commenced and
opened up for divine service on toe fol-
lowing Christmas Day. Soon after the
benediction of the new church, nuns ar
rived IN the new Mission. The educa-
tion of youth is one of the fundamental
elements Of State--it is an essentia.
matter in any civilised country: but,
above all, it is one of the great secrets
of success for Catholic Missi' n IN a
Pagan and Protestant land. The boys
school was already prosrering, but
nothing was as yet effected for the re-
ligious education of the girls. AS soon
as circumstances therefore permitted
they were provided for, and the Sisters
arrived towards the close Of 1855 to take
charge of their schools. 1t is irpos-
sible to relate in short sketch all the
good that has been effected by those
schools for the last twenty years. Sut-
fee it to say that those schools, both
male and female, are numerously at
tended, and are, according to the in.
spector's report, among the best in the
colony. The work Of conversions
meanwhile went steadily on. but at
what a sacrifice! Sickness and suffer-
ings, fevers and epidemics, all had TO
be counted with, generously accepted
and patiently endured. The Superior
himself was several times deprived OF
his companions either by departure or
death. He was, at least, three times Tor
cavoro1 mnnths the only priest in the
Mission, and to day five Of the mission
aries lie inferred in the cemetery close
by, awaiting their glorious resurrectl on.
The church erected in 1866 being no
longer sufficient to accommodate the
eyer-increasing number of converts, a
most pressing need was felt-yiz., a
church capable Of accommodating at
least more than a Thousand persons,
and which would, at the same time, il t,,l' not