The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-07-07
Especial Correspondence
Catholic.l
2 Intermountain

Especial Correspondence IntermountaiI
Catholic.)
Desmet, Ida, June 27.-Father JOSEPH
Josef, the famous Indian missionary
expired yesterday morning at Z o'clock
at Desmet Mission, Idaho, amidst the
sorrowing Couer d'Alene Indians, whose
spiritual guide he had been for the pas
fifty years. Calmly, peacefully, as one
in a sweet sleep, he gave up his great
soul into the hands of his Maker, eX-
hausted by long years of faithful SER
vice.
He was the last of that noble band OF
Jesuit missionaries of which Father De-
smet was the leader, which had come
from distant Europe as early as 1870
and had taken up his abode among the
Flathead and Pend d'Oreille tribes.
Thence the fathers had separated to
spread the word of God among the nu-
merous scattered, rowing bands of In
dians, settling among them and found
ing missions at their rallying places.
For the past ten years his advanced
age rendered an active missionary life
impossible, and he never went beyond
the mission precincts, save to take an
occasional horseback ride In 1896 he
was forced to give up the last conso-
lation that had been left him-an oc-
casional sermon to his beloved Indians
and after that he seldom came in
contact with his spiritual children, re-
ceiving now and then visit from his
grateful Occur d'Alenes.
Father Josef died at a time when not
only are all the Occur d'Alenes gathered
together at Desmet Mission, but when
the number is largely augmented by the
advent of Kalispels, Kootenais, Spo-
kanes, Simpisquens, Sinkomens and
others, for all of whom the jealous
priest had devoted fifty-six years of his
life. They have now the one consola-
tion of rendering to their beloved father
the last sorrowful testimony of their
love and Veneration.
The Rev. Joseph Josef, s. j., was born
Aug q, 1910, at a little village among
the Bernese Alps, not far from the i'm
portant city of Fribourg, Switzerland.
He was the third of six children, all
boys, of very religious parents, who IN
fused their own deep Christian spirit
into their sons. OF the six boys the eld-
est in later years engaged in business,
while the remaining five pursued eccle-
siastical studies and eventually became
priests or entered religious orders. The
late MonSignor Josef, a Capuchin monk,
and vicar apostle in China, was Fa-
ther Joseph Joset's eldest brother.
Father Josef entered the college of
the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, sit
uated at Fribourg, where he pursued
his classical studies and at the close of
his college career there he entered the
Jesuit noviate in Switzerland in 1880.
At the end Of his probationary term he
was stationed for a few years as pro-
fessor of classics at his alma mater
in Fribourg, but his health failing we
was several times relieved from his
educational work and sent to recuper-
ate near the picturesque banks of Lake
Geneva.
Here might be noticed the longevity
in Father Joset's family, Though deli
cate himself in his youth, death struck
him only in his goth year His eldest
brother died a few months since al The |
venerable age of SO years. Though none
other of his brothers died nonagenari- |
ans, yet each reached a ripe old age.
After being engaged a number of |
years in the college at FIibourg he !
went to pursue his higher ecclesiastical |
studies at the Jesuit scholasticate in |
that city, and in 1912 was ordained |
priest. Within year, answering call |
for missionaries for the far west, he |
crossed the ocean and spent some |
months at st. Louis fitting himself for |
his future life work.
In the spring of 1914 the little band of |
crossed the Rocky noun |
tains and settled at st. Mary's mis- |
sion. the present site of StevenSville, |
Mont, having made the overland jour |
ney in six months. He was appointed |
acting supervisor, which office he was |
there relieved of by Father Congiato in
1856
Father Desmet on his way to and !
from Portland, Ore, had several times
seen the Coeur d'Alene Indians, and /
I'D oh will f1sin 1A11f
natures. He determined to es-
lablish a mission among them, and ac-
in the fall of 1856 Father Jo |
set was sent to evangeliZe them. Their !
winter quarters were then on the banks
IF the st. Joe river, some twenty miles |
from its mouth. /
A missionary's life at that time meant /
an ever active existence - much time |
spent in the saddle and at least nine
months of the year spent in the noma-
lie career of the Indian of that day. |
The Indian had not yet learned the
blessings of a settled life, and the idea /
If tilling the fields had as yet no de-
lights for him. So, pitching his tent,
low on the banks of Lake Coeur
/ 'Alene, during the fishing season, and
again through the mountains when the
ed men went hunting, preaching and
praying, catechizing and instructing,
aJnef josef spent the nrSt SIX years
If his missionary life.
A change was made in the location of
he Kalispel mission and St Marys
vas deserted and a new mission erected
1t st. Ignatius. About the same time
Father Josef opened up the mission,
dedicated to st. Paul, at what is now
Kettle Falls, Wash, on the Columbia
liver, among the COlville Indians. From
hat time forward these two stations
among the Colvilles and the Coeur
'Alenes) were the field of his zeal.
3Taving the colds Of winter regardless
f the summer heats, he Travelled about
rom place to place. mostly afoot, dis
'ensing instruction and the consola-
ions of religion to the red men Ev-
Tywhere he went he earned the good
viii and affection of those with whom
e came in contact. The Indians par
icplarly were never tired Of his exhor-
ations and lessons of practical Chris
ianity. He him self once related a
to prove the eagerness of
he Indians for instruction. but which
roves equally well the esteem in which
hey held him.
The Indian children to the number of