The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-04-11
GREAT THRONG PAYS
TRIBUTE OF ESTEEM
Miss Mary Catalan at Rest !
Oak Hill
A SOLEMN HIGH REQUIEM
Services at ST. Paul's chureh-Father
coyle Delivers Fitting and sympa-
thetc Address-church Filled
With Sorrowing Friends.
A SOLEMN HIGH REQUIEM

All that was mortal of Miss Mary
Catalan, for many years and at the time
of her death. the beloved principal of
the Powell school, was laid to rest in
Oallhlll cemetery yesterday. The funeral
was one of the most impressive and one
of the most largely attended ever held
in Birmingham.
At clock the Rev. Father Coyle, pas
tor of st. Paurs church, began the ser
vices at the residence on Fourth avenue.
Standing at the casket he reeited the
miserere, and the De Profundis, after
which the body was borne to the church.
As early as half past o'clock sorrow
ing friends were assembling at St. Paufs
and by . o'clock the spacious edihee Was
filled When the cortege arrived the
/ throng was SO great that hundreds had
to stand in the space back of the pews
and In the vestibue. School children were
present in large numbers.
As the remains were carried through
the aisle the choir sang, Lead Kindly
Light
The active pallbearers were DR.. j. ii.
Phillips, superintendent of public schools;
Prof c. A. Brown, principal of the Hen
ley school; Prof. ]. E. Cunningham, prn-
cipal of the High school; Prof. c. b.
Glenn, principal of the Paul Hayne
school: Prof 7. c. Young, principal Of
the Martin school: Prof Samuel Adams,
principal of the Barker school; Prof. A.
A. Lyon, principal of the South High
lands school: Prof. e. M. Roof, former
principal of the Henley school.
The honorary pallbearers were w. NJ
Bremen, president of the Board of Edu-
cation: ELI p Smith vice president of
the Board of Education; Mayor George
b. Ward. Henry b. Gray. treasurer of
the Board of Education; DR. Samuel Ull-
man. former president of the Board of
Education. and Hugh McGeever.
Solemn Requiem.
The mourners being seated solemn
high mass of requiem was sung with the
Rev Father Kitrick as celebrant, the
Rev. Father Bratton as deacon and the
Rev Father Coyle as sub-deacon. The
musical parts of the mass dendered by
the choir were the Kyrie Eleison, the
Dies Irae. the Offertory the Sanetus, the
Benedietus and the Agnus Del; and at the
close of the mass, while the celebrant and
the assisting ministers were removing
their outer vestments, the choir sang the
Liberia.
Father X tal nj 10
bier, read in Latin, in low voice, the burial
service. Moving around the coffin he
sprinkled it with holy water, and ineensed
it, and then gave the dissolution. After
these rites Father Coyle, standing over
the coffin, read the English translation OF
the burial service and then delivered an
address. The priest said:
Once long centuries ago, when the man
God, was teaching and preaching to the
people, He used a remarkable phrase.
With the solemn asseveration, wherewtih
He was wont to affirm great truths He
said, amen, amen, | say to you. if any
man shall keep my law he shall not see
death forever" His hearers, though men
of the eastern land with all the magma
tion of the east, understood not His
words. They looked around them and saw
death everywhere in Nature. They saw
that the fairest flowers, the lilies of the
field, grander than Solomon in all his
glory" delighted for an alltoo-short time
with their fragrance and beauty and then
were no more; that the might cedar of
Lebanon, what though they lived for
ages, yet were not immortal; that time
would come when the leaves would fall
at autumn tide; would not be remembered
with returning spring; that the branches
that bore the brunt of wintry blast would
fall at the gentlest zephyr, when the
trunk, that for centuries had stood aloft
in the face of the hurricane. should lie
PROSTATE, moss-covered and low.
We too, as they, see this. We see that
all things pass away-trees, plants and
flowers, the beasts of the forest, the fishes
of the vast deep. Death is everywhere.
Man. Gods greatest work, Gods MASTER
pieee-is he immortal? All, no. Man, too,
must die, no matter how grand or how
great the deeds he wrought. Though with
conquerng armies he won victory on a
thousand fields of glory, though In I'M
dying lays he carved his name on the
tablets of the temple of fame, though he
held subject in bonds of love, as one old
man by Theirs banks today Is doing hun
dreds of millions of his fellow men, yet
a time must come when these must go;
a summons shall sound that may not be
disobeyed by soldier, poet or pontiff 1T
is appointed unto all men once to die"
The Savior's Meaning.
What then did the Savior mean when
He said, IF any man shall keep my law
he shall not taste death forever" All, the
Christ spoke of another death. He was
not referring to what men call death
What we call death is but the beginning
of life It is but the release OF the inn
mortal sould from its prison house of clay.
The body returns to the elements from
which Gods creative power called 1t; the
Death. There is no death. Well says the
poet:
There is no death. What seems so is
transition.
This life Of mortal breath
Is but a suburb OF the Vale Elysian
Whose portals we call death -
The Savior's Meaning.
What death then did the Savior refer
to? This. Not the separation OF the
Of the soul from God. This union OF