The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-13

to Chicopee and from Chicopee west to
Great harrington, and from Chicopee
eastward again to Boston. In 1886 he
came to live at Worcester; and he bullt
Christ's Church on the very spot where |
speak and you listen. His successor at
Hartford was Father John Brady, and
while Father Fitton looked after the east
ern end of the state, and especially Wor-
cester county, Father Brady cared for the
interests Of the Catholics In the counties
of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and
BERKSHIRE. His cousin Father John ID.
Brady, became pastor Of Cabotville, or
Chicopee, in 1871, and thenceforward gave
close attention to all the Catholics be-
tween the Brookfelds and the New York
and Vermont state lines. In October, 1S45,
assistant, and these three men, Fathers
Fitton, Brady and O'Cavanaugh, divided
amongst them the responsibilities for the
care of the Catholic people.
Tt is of interest to note that these men
were not only the pioneers in the forma-
tion Of parishes and the building of
churches and chapels, but in the founding
Of Catholic schools. Father Fitton, IN
1S40, opened at Worcester, in Pakachoag,
or Hill Of Pleasant Springs, the seminary
of Mount ST. James now the splendid
College of the Holy Cross. In 1912 Father
Brady began in the galleries Of the Church
school. whose twenty pupils knew as dom
inie, Edward P. Gillian This teacher af-
forwards, in his fifteenth year, became q
priest and served as chaplain in the Irish
regiment during the civil war. Father
QCavanaugh, in 1S4s, was pastor of Pitts
field, and opened in 1850 or 1851 a parish
school in the Church house." an addition
built against the church proper as home
for the sexton, A Mr.. William Waldron
typical Irish schoolmaster, ruled here
Father O'Cavanaugh's school was built
as shelter for the Catholic children whom
the spirit of know-nothingism would not
let be at peace in the public schools
There was a school at Fitchburg in 1852
and another in this parish of ST. John in
1864 No one of the schools mentioned had
any measure of success. Properly speak
ing, Father Fitton's was not a parish
school: Father Brady's was, and it is
pleasant TO note the coincidence that af-
forwards, when parochial school work
was taken UP in right earnest the first
parish school within this diocese was built
in 1867 at Chicopee, and the first teachers
who b. gan scientifically to labor there
We're the four sisters of Notre Dame AL
banie Mary Rosa, Felicitas and Magda-
lene of st. Joseph, who came thither at
rather Patrick Healy's call, to the con-
vent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
These good sisters were not however. the
first nuns to come within our lines That
honor belongs to Worcester, to old st
Anne's, to its old-tims pastor, now the
venerable vicar general of the diocese,
very Rev. John j. Power and to the Sis
tiers of Mercy, who, with Sister Mary
Elizabeth as superior, came October Path
the church as shelter for the poor and for
the sick working girls of the parish.
IN tneSe TWO communities we have the
initial Of all the great bands of teaching
and hospital nuns of our diocese Old St
Annes little hospital was the first that
either Worcester CITY or the diocese knew
and the magnificent buildings now at Hol-
yoke, Springfield and Worcester under
the care of that splendid working body
the Sisters of providence. and the other
ne9ses occupied and ruled by the Sisters
of st; Anne, and those of the Gray Nuns
and the Little Franciscans, together with
the Springfield Refuge the house of the
Sisters OF the Good Shepherd had fore
shadowing. here. The schools, whose
churches everywhere throughout the 1--WE
counties which make our domain. had
seed In that little community of Notra
Dame which made its first home in the
convent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
at Chicopee in the blessed summer of 1861
The first parochial school op ned on the
sec second day Ct September in the side
Chicopee. There were two hundred girls
in attendance.
spes messis est in, semine, THE hope
OF the harvest is in the seed " Thus reads
the legend over the stone portals of the
greatest training school of priests in
North America, and alt the deeds done
Tor God have foreshadowng in the zeal
ana the sacrifice, and the skill for spirit
ual battle shown by the Levites within its
walls. The hope Of the harvest was in
GOOD seed when. the daughters of Julia
Billiart came and gave their lives When
the gentle English nun, Albanie. with her
three companions of Irish blood. came
into the valley of the Connecticut, back
or her followed in the shadow all who
have taught here since and all who will
teach in the years to come. Could Father
Healy nave seen the army of nuns and
children that trooned that day back Of
me sisters how his great heart would
have rejoiced. He would have seen chill
dren OF many races led on by nuns in
black. nuns in brown and nuns in gray
Father Healy's school has widened until
it embraces in its shadow forty-fve other
parish schools The four nuns have be-
come three hundred and fifty-two. Notre
Dame is now one Of fifteen orders of re-
ligious women teaching in the diocese.
and to this must be added two communi-
til S of monks &c two hundred children
Of that frst day now make the splendid
legions of 17,146 who crowd our schools
This does not include the children in our
orphanages and asylums
have said that our church has worked
a revolution in this land. Would it seem
When the vanguard of the Irish Catholic
settlers in this diocese came into the
Heart of the Commonwealth and into the
Connecticut valley there was no Christ
mas, nor Easter. nor Good Friday. The
farmers drove their herds afield on the
--aster as on any Sunday. or went to the
forests for telling trees at Christmas, or
on Good Friday made their OK wains
groan under the great timbers going to
the mill and all the wheels of the facto-
ries whirled as rapidly. ON these sacred
dav- as on the day before and the day
following Now New England knows
Christmas with all its sweet symbolism,
and the children of Puritan descent watch
for it and listen for the story of the
Christ child and his mother as eagerly as
do those who bear names like ours The
new life of the Easter time throbs joy
ously In the hearts of those who worship
in Congregational Baptist or Unitarian
meeting houses though II may be in les
ser measure. as II docs in the hearts of
those who gather about the Catholic al
tars. Light has come into the face of
gloomy CongreEationalism. 1t has seen
its error ia mistalSing the liberalism of the