The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-05-10


the Catholic hierarchy of the Unite
States than Bishop John Lancaste
Spalding Of Peoria, ILL.,, who yesterda,
celebrated the silver jubilee of his ele
walton to the episcopate Historically
his names. Lancaster and Spaldine
connect him with the settlement o
Maryland in Lord Baltimore's time
and afterward with Kentucky. Hi,
family and relatives, Spaldings. Fen
hicks and Lancasters, have given emf
nent bishops, priests and nuns to tn,
church. He himself is reputed tn,
most scholarly among the bishops; hi.
books are perennial delight to thos,
Who love high thoughts set in splendid
words: his lectures on American public
topics and men. on education and the
philosophy Of life, have an intellectual
reach and depth hardly equaled and
rarely surpassed by contemporary ora
tors. His work for his church, both in
his diocese of Peoria and outside Hi
nOis, though transformations, has been
large. Indeed, to mention in the same
breath ostentation and Bishop Spald-
jng's name would argue ignorance OF
the man and his character. Personally
he commands not only the admiration
but the warm affection of those who
know him, and these are many, both
inside and outside his church
Yesterday, the twenty-fifth anniver-
F8Ty Of his conservation as bishop that
affection was shown in Peoria by his
own people and thousands not of his
faith; by the big roll of the hierarchy
present to congratulate him and do him
honor The martyrs red of the cardi-
nal was there; the solemn purple of
archbishops and bishops, and the va
Tied vestments of the followers and
f.' nj ,1af ]
St Francis, st. Dominic and St Igna-
thus and the plain black and white of
hundreds of the parochial clergy gath
cred from every corner of the nation
His life can be shortly told; it is
worth a few minutes consideration to
any and every one.
EARLY COLONIAL ANCESTRY.
His ancestors. the Spaldings, arrived
in Maryland few years after the first
colony. that which came with Lord
Baltimore in 1884 in the Ark and Dove.l
They are found fully established in St
lIary's county in 1850. They came from
Lincolnshire, in England, where one of
them had given his name to the great
Abbey of Spalding. which was. confis-
Gated in the reign of Edward VI. He
IS therefore, / believe, Of the same
original stock as the late Protestant
Episcopal Bishop Spalding of Colorado.
4 strain Of Irish blood flows in his
veins and possibly gives TO his charac-
Ter and writings the mysticism and
"infnie delicatesse de sentiment"
which Renan and Matthew Arnold tell
us characterize the Celt. The strain
comes through Ellen O'Brian, his
great great gra ndmother, whose fam
iIy. with the CAROLS, had sought ref
uge from religious persecution with the
Calverts in Maryland.
INHERITANCE OF PATRIOTISM.
1t would be silly to say that only
those who are descendants of the first
colonists truly appreciate and love
America, her spirit and institutions.
Yet it is entirely safe to assume that
descendants of brave and worthy for
bears who cleared the land of dense
wood and bramble. and denser' British
authority descendants of those who
came in the Mayflower and the Ark,
have instinctively and impressively
clearer view and more thorough under
standing of the genius of America than
We who arrived in a Cunarder. L
can't think said an English gentle
man to me one night as we listened to
q demagogue abuse the English arts
tOcracy. L can't think it is a thing,
don't YOU know. to blush for. that one
has had three generations of clean
linen in his family" 1t is certainly
not a thing to be ashamed of in Amer
ica that one has five or six generations
of brave fathers and wholesome mo-
theirs behind him, and these Bishop
Spalding has. Originally settlers in
Maryland members Of the Spalding
family moved in the eighteenth CEN
fury into Kentucky, as also did Robert
l--rF 1t 3 -ry- md
mother and the only Catholic in the
convention which framed the state con-
stitution of Kentucky. His mothers
ancestors. the Lancasters, were, with
the Haydons, the first Catholic set
Tiers in Kahn tuck-kee, 'the dark and
bloody ground, while yet it was
county of Virginia. Those who know
tell me there are counties in Kentucky
where you cannot throw stone With
out hitting a Spalding or Lancaster.
And all Of the Spaldings are descend
ants Of Bishop Spalding's great-grand-
father Benedict. to whom was gwen
the patriarchal family of six sons and
six daughters. all of whom married eX-
cept one. and of whom every one lived
TO great age.
OF A FAMILY OF PRIESTS.
John Lancaster Spalding was born in
Lebanon, KY. in 1870. He was OF a
family Of priests, as Bishop Rose
Grams said thirty-seven years later al
his conservation. "who have supported
the fabric of our religion in this coun-
Try and who will maintain its honor,
not only among Catholics, but VIII de-
fead it also among those who are not
catholics" At the time of his blrth'
his uncle Martin John Spalding, D. D., |
was a priest and professor Of famed |
attainments. He was later the great |
archbishop of Baltimore, great in learn
ing eloquence. piety and prudence.
The tendency churchman's whlch /
characterized his family developed IN |
John Spalding and in early life ne re-
solved to be priest. His eccleslaS-
teal studies. begun in Kentucky, We're
brilliantly completed in Europe. ne
was ordained priest in 1853. In ms
writings the note Of love for his col |
laGe. his college companions and pro
fessors. which is the secret music that |
sings in every true students soul |
breaks out now and again: Solemn |
groves" he cried in his lecture on |
Higher Education" delivered at the
Third Council of Baltimore in 1884,
solemn groves that lie close to Lou
vain and Frieburg. whose air is balm
and whose murmuring winds SOUND IKE
the voices of saints and sages Whisper
ing down the galleries of time, what
word have We not heard bursting forth
from the stony hearts of keen witted
youths. who, Titan-like. believed they
might storm the citadel of Gods truth
How many a one, heavy and despono-
ert. in the narrow, lonesome pain OF
duty has remembered you, and moved
again in unseen worlds, uphelo ny
faith and hope, Who has listened TO
The words of your teachers and not ieit
tho truth Of the saying of Plus II, !nal
the vorid holds nothing more precious