The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-03

hOhan Oatn0ifC priest, Tor clergymen
of other denominations (of whom /
shall deal further DOWN are very rare
/ in our mountains. and their fiocks ex-
+ ceedingly small.
The priest is by far the most impOr-
tant man in our neighborhood The
autocrat Of all the Russias is far from
being vouchsafed the dutiful obedi-
ence paid the priest. and no prince or
+ potentate ever got a 1.-THE of the whole
! SOuled love that is laVished on the
/ darling priest, or, as we call him, the
saSaTt arun.
Some years ago, in the thr0es of the
land war, the constitutional authorities
were shocked when the world famous
Father MacFadden of Gweedore an
! nounced for their edifcation at a pub
/ lie demonstration: Il am the law in
/ GweedOre." Yet, though they harried
/ him and prosecuted him and impris-
/ oned him, they, to their bitterness,
/ learnt at sore price that he had only
given utterance to a cold fact. The
! forces OF the crown when they came
/ to arrest. him were held at bay for
long weeks by his poor, unarmed flock
| till. when blood had been split, he dis
/ banded the standing army that his
/ followers had constituted for his de-
tense and voluntarily gave himself up.
50, in every mountain parish, the
priests word is more truly the law
/ than the enactments Of the British par
lament. And because Of this sneerers
who know not the conditions of things,
and know not the sentiments and feel
lngS and the proper relations Of
priest and people, say that we are
priest ridden. They say so because they
know not, and do not seek TO know,
! that the extraordinary obedience and
respect paid to the priests word is
rounded not in the remOteSt manner
upon servility or fear (for our people
never have been serviie or afraid. but
upon fond, filial love and implicit
faith which our mountain priests, by
their priestly and fatherly qualities.
have wOrthily engendeFed in the hearts
of those who have never in vain looked
to them for sympathy. for help, for
guidance and for protection.
"Sagart Arun."
For the true sagart. when he takes
charge of a mountain parish, takes
upon his shoulders and upon his heart
a great load. The sickness. the trOu-
bles. the sorrows and griefs of every
household, OF every child, in his do
main are his personal sorrows, and
their little joys are his joys. Not mere
ly for the souls, but for the bodies of
every one in his parish, responsibility
weighs him down. He can not, could
not, shirk his traditional duty, which
is truly to father his flock in all things
to brave any tyrant who would op-
press them or unjust one who would
wrong them, to fight for them, to suf-
fer for them, to lay down his life for
them, if need be.
Banin, in his lovely ballad, "Sagart
Arun,' (sawgarth arOOn) gives
touching picture of the true feeling of
the peasant for his priest
Loyal and brave to you,
Sagart arun.
Yet be no slave to you,
Sagart arun.
Nor out Of fear TO you
Stand up so near to you,
Sagart aruni
Who, in the winters night.
Sagart arun-
When the cold blast did bite,
Sagart arun-
Come TO my cabin door,
And on the earthen floor
Knelt by me, sick and poor,
SagaEt arun?
Who, on the marriage day,
Sagart arun.
Made my poor cabin gay
Sagart arun?
Who did both laugh and sing
Making our glad hearts ring,
At the poor christening,
SagarT arun!
Och. you and only you,
Sagart arun
For this | was true to you,
Sagart arun.
In love they'll never shake
Who for Ould Ireland's sake
a true stand and part did take,
Sagart arunl
The Roman Catholic clergy nowadays
receive their education at Maynooth
01EhIr a n
lished 100 years ago, and before that
time the boy who felt a priestly vOca-
ton went to France, Belgium or Spain
for his education. In the penal days
when educating his son for a priest
would mean confiscation of a fathers
property the bold young fellow, after
getting a smattering of Latin at home
by stealth from the Outlawed hedge |
schoolmaster, was carried aboard a
smuggling smack, which rode in some /
forgotten bay, at dead OF night and
thus borne to the continent In a !
smuggler, also. and under cover of |
night. like a thief, he stole into Ireland /
again. when he had been ordained, and, |
disguised as a layman, tried to minis |
ter in private to an aWed and hunger !
ing flock.
Except in the case of our mountain |
priests, the MaynOoth man of today /
Is not the same ~ pc VI AioAIAcAy Se1s al l I
that his continental schooled predeces- /
sOr was.
The Mountain Parish.
Our parishes perhaps average ten |
miles square, and contain, say, 5000 /
souls; for whom there are two ehapels /
and three priests. Some parishes are /
twenty miles long and even longer; /
and, as every one appreciates the duty 1
Of regular attendance at mass, six, !
seven and eight miles of Moor noun ]
tain and road is a common distance |
for men and women of 20 to walk to I
chapel on Sunday, in sun and in storm, /
rain, hail or SNOW. TOpc0ats are al /
most unknown with US, and the women /
who carry umbrellas are rare. But /
our people give little concern to a +
drenching and little care to cough.
In one case with which I was quite 1
familiar these poor people, after /
tramping weary miles to mass and ar
irving drenched with rain or snow or I
reeking with perspiration. knelt down /
upon the grass field, bareheaded under /
a scorching sun orsl pitiless storm and /
heard mass read by the priest under /
the protection of a matched and open |
shed This kind of mass shed is known |
as a seaman, and is the last link that |
binds us to the days when no chapel
was allowed in the land and the priest
gathered the flock in a hollow Of the
JOKERS WEREN'T INVITED.