The Irish standard., 1898-09-17
THE ARCHBISHOP OF ST. PAUL
Interesting Sketch of the Great
Mgr. John Ireland.
CHAPLAIN In THE CIVIL WAR
Has Written His Name Indelibly
On American Annals.

There are few, if there be any, more
prominent churchmen, all denomina-
tion taken into consideration, in this
country than Most Rev. John Ireland,
archbishop of ST. Paul, says Rue" in
the Catholic Transcript. Whenever any
important ecclesiastical issue arises;
whenever points of morality are in
volved in political questions, or when
ever patriotic sentiments require an
eloquent spokesman, the Minnesota
metropolitan can usually be found in
the public forefront, giving expression
to views which invariably commend
themselves to the entire community in
dependent Of religious distinctions. 1t
is but a few days ago that the country
listened to him as he spoke OIL the con-
dition of the Catholic church and its fu~
ture in our newly-acquired possessions,
and last week he was down on the pro-
gram to deliver one of his characteristic
patriotic addresses at the national en-
campment Of G. A. R.,which was held at
Cincinnati. It is no new role for Mgr.
ireland to fill the post of orator to the
veterans of the G. A. R. He has often
addressed such audiences in past years.
He is himself a veteran of the civil war;
and he is one of the few Americans who,
without having actually participated in
battles, wears the cross of the Loyal
Legion.
Archbishop Ireland is by no means an
old man yet He kept his Goth
birthday, by the way last Sunday, for
he was born at Burnchurch, in the Irish
county of Kilkenny, on Sept. II, 1885,
He was but boy of IL years when his
parents determined to cross the Atlantic
and try their fortunes in America They
chose Minnesota for their new home
and soon afterwards their son declared
his intention of studying for the priest
hood. The abilities which he displayed
during the years of his preliminary
training attracted the attention of Bish-
op Cretin, the sanity proto-prelate of
st. Paul, i'll which city the Irelands had
located, and that prelate took the prom
Using youth under his care. Subsequent
ly young Ireland was sent by Bishop
Cretin to the preparatory seminary at
Merimeux, in France, from which in
stitution he afterwards passed to the
Grand seminary at Hyeres, where he
made his theological course. For his
ordination he came back to St. Paul,
where he was priested by Bishop Grace,
the second ordinary Of St. Paul, on Dec.
II, 1861. For short while he did duty
at the cathedral, but he soon entered
upon new field of labor. The civil war
was then going on, and as many of the
men who went to the front to battle for
the maintenance Of the Union were
Catholics, Father Ireland offered his
services as chaplain to the governor of
the state, and was commissioned chap
lain Of the 5th Minnesota volunteers.
Chaplain Ireland speedily Won the af-
lection of the regiment. He accompa-
MED the command through many of the
notable battles in which it engaged; and
one Of the regimental officers bore wit
ness to the fact that every man in the
9TH Minnesota volunteers was in love
with the big-hearted, brave and ener-
getic chaplain. "At Clear Creek" wrote
this officer some years since in one of
the Western papers, "the boys built him
rude altar with sort Of a canopy
over it of green bushes and little sap
lings gathered from neighboring wood,
In my three years experience as SOL
dier this was the only occasion l saw
where such preparation was made for a
chaplain. And when, after celebrating
mass at this altar, Chaplain Ireland
turned to address the soldiers who were
gathered around it, he had not spoken
five minutes before he had gotten an
immense audience together there under
the burning Mississippi sun; men who
had spread their blankets in the shade
OF the neighboring trees to play chuck
a-luck, abandoning their game and grad
ually pressing forward to hear what the
young priest had to say; and when he
closed, the veterans cheered him vocif-
erously as he descended from his brush
pulpit" And this notable incident in
Chaplain Ireland's career was the part
he played in the battle of Corinth, in
October, 1862, when "Old Rosey" was
fighting against Price and Van Dorm, and
the 9th Minnesota was where the bullets
flew thickest. All at once the word was
passed down the line that the cartridges
were giving out and that the 5th must
retreat. Suddenly, however, out of the
smoke and din of the conflict came
Chaplain Ireland, who had foreseen the
failure Of the ammunition, with huge