The Irish standard., 1903-04-04
His Stay in America Constituted the Most
Busy and Glorious Period
of His Life.
Shrank From Public Notice, but the Country
Soon Rang With the Fame of
His Eloquence.

The visit of the celebrated Irish
Dominican, Father Thomas Burke, O..
P, to America constitutes the most
busy and glorious period of his life,
and the way he passed through it
shows how deep was his grounding
both in virtue and learning. All the
past seems but a preparation for it.
He expected to be absent only few
weeks, but did not return to Ireland
for eighteen months He purposely
selected vessel with a large number
OF steerage passengers, and, to their
great joy, had free access to them and
heard upward of three hundred confes-
sions on the voyage. He preached
to them many times, and being asked
to preach to the saloon passengers, ac-
cepted only ON condition that the steer
age should be allowed to be present.
Indeed, he spent the greater part of his
time with them, cheering the emil
grants and encouraging all to be true
to the faith in their new home across
the Atlantic.
On arriving in America, he worked
for some weeks as visitor in the con-
vents of Kentucky and Ohio. Though
he shrank from all public notice, the
country soon rang with the fame of
his eloquence, and his name was on the
lips Of all.
In March, 1872, he gave three lee
lures, and preached the Lenten dis
courses at the Church of st. Paul in
New York. This large edifice was
quite unable to hold the large crowds
that f1ocked to hear him; laborers 60
ing direct from their work, carrying
their dinner cans; merchants coming
from business to hear HMM fact
people of all classes eagerly waiting
until the doors were opened. -Four or
five hours before sermon or lecture,
every place was filled and the ap-
proaches beseiged by crowds seeking
for admittance. The calls upon him
were incessant, and he satisfied all he
could, while not neglecting the main
object of his visit.
One morning two nuns sat in the
parlor of st. Vincent Ferrer's, New
York, waiting patiently until they
could catch Father Burke as he pass
ell out. At last he came hurried and
pressed, and could only say, "No, no,
Sister: I cannot do it, They burst
into tears and said: 'Well, it is the
will of God, but we are very poor"
Father Burke at once replied, ''There
that will do Sister, will try to man.
age it." And of course he did.
:" An amusing anecdote is told of diff
ficulty he had in giving one of his lec-
lures in New York. There was a pri-
vate door to the platform Of the lee
Z ture-hall, but Father Burke, forgetting
this, tried to make his way through the
crowd at the main entrance. After be-
ing jostled about for some time, he
got hemmed in between some pillars
and big Irishwoman. At last he
. said: "My good woman, will you let
Nme get past you?" "Don't bother me-"
fwas the reply; "are you any better
Ehan anyone else?" "Well," said
bFather Burke, "there won't be any lec-
fture if 1 can't get in; I'm Father Bur-
ike" "You Father Burke" she ex-
\t,laimed disdainfully, giving him
thrust with her elbow, Ego to the
Y devilv'
] .he strain of overwork was begin
ming to tell upon him, and in the sum-
amer Of 1872 an attack of hemorrhage
of the lungs necessitated a period of
rest. For many weeks, he had
/, frequently preached three times in on,
day, and in churches some distance
apart. ''Tired is not the word," he
had to confess in expressing his state;
81 can only compare my case to Ned
Burkes dog during the famine; they
I had to support his back at the wall to
enable him to bark" But his rest was
a short one, and in September he ad-
i dressed at Boston an audience Of 49,
200 people. He also visited st. Louis,
<<5hicago, Cleveland and many other