The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-11-10
An Institution That Has Been Great Fact
and Factor in the Life of the
Country.
In 1497 Came the English-Speaking Cath
oics, Over Century Before the
Puritans.

lands. priests commissioned by bishops
bearing the faith. miinstering to those
who accompanied them, remaining to
convert those whom they found.
Priests sent cut from Ireland, and
subsequently from Scandinavia reached
Iceland, and in time a church grew up
In that northern island with bishops.
churches, converts. Advancing still
onward in the unknown seas the North
men landed In Greenland, and Cath.
olicity was planted on the American
continents by priests from Iceland, and
In 1112 the See of Gardar was erect
ed by Pope Paschal H., and Eric was
appointed the first bishop.
Full of missionary zeal this prel-
ate accompanied the ships of his sea.
faring flock. and reached the land
known in the Sagas Of the North by
the name OF Vinland, as an Irish bish.
op, John Of Skaholt in Iceland, had
already done. How far southwark the
navigators of the north and their
spiritual teachers carried the Cross
and the worship of the Catholic
Church, 1t is not our province to de.
eide.
When Columbus revealed to Europe{
the existence of rich and fertile islands
accessible from Spain, the ministers
of the Church came. Priests accom-
panied the vessels with faculties from
the bishop in whose diocese the port
OF departure lay. and where they re-
mained In the new land the bishops
jurisdiction continued till a local ec-
clesiastical government was formed.
Thus the See Of Seville acquired a
jurisdiction in the New World where
the standard of Spain was planted,
and she became the mother of the
earliest churches in America. Not
inaptly, the Cathedral Of Seville pre-
serves in her treasury the chalice made
of the first gold taken to Europe by
Columbus, for the first-fruits of the
precious metals Of the New World
were dedicated to the service of Al
mighty God in the Catholic Church.
The See Of Santo Domingo was erect-
ed by the Sovereign Pontifc in 1873,
that of Santiago de Cuba in 1922, thai
Of the Carolensis in Yucatan in 1919,
and Of Mexico in 1880. These followed
up the work Of Seville, the bishops Of
the new Sees sending priests com.
misioned by them to bear the faith
northward till the territory over which
our flag now floats was reached and
the Cross planted.
The Church of Spain with her array
of doctors and saints from an Isodore
/ and Leander, a Hosius, a Thomas Of
Villanova, was thus extended to our
SOIL and her priests offered the first
worship Of Almighty God on the shores
Of Florida, Of the Chesapeake, in the
valleys Of the Mississippi and the Rio
Grande. The work was followed UP,
and though the soil was reddeneA.
with the blood Of many. priest who
won the martyrs crown, there was no
faltering, the work went on till in time
Bishops came and every Sacrament Of
the Church was duly administered In +
that portion of our territory. 81.
Our alliance with the Catholic
Church in Spain is not. a mere epfs
sode. The first bishops Of Louisiana
and Mobile were suffragans of santo
Domingo and of Santiago de: Cuba;
the first bishop Of Californiaaa sufrra- I
gan Of Mexico. while Texas New Mexs
leo and Arizona were in our! time de-
tached from dioceses which. trace their
origin to the glorious Church in Spain.
Soon after the vessels Of Columbus l
bore back the startling news Of great /
discovery. q ship from Bristol. under
Cabot, in 1897. bore to- the northern I
shores of our continent the hrst band
of English-speakins Catholics ana