The Irish standard., 1909-07-10

he was needed, amid the frosts Of win
ter, amid the sombre shades of night?
l remember one Sunday evening in Wi
mona. He had said mass and preach
ed in the parish church; he had driv-
en- to say second mass twenty miles
away; he returned drenched from the
heavy rain, and within few moments
after hurried change of raiment and
a hurried snatching of slender meal,
presiding over a temperance society.
And such for him, l learned. was one
Sunday after another for many long
years. Need I ask whether as bishop
he refused himself to priest or people,
were they removed from his home by
hundreds of miles.
His. a keen divning of what was
to be done, an intelligent grasp of cir
cumstances, the tact to do we'll what
ever came to his mind. Years ago
priests were few, and Immediately aft
er his ordination Father Cotter was
put in charge of the parish of Winona
and the adjoining missionary stations.
No mistake made he; no reproaches
ever came from his superior. l recall
the saying of the lamented Bishop
Grace that the parish of Winona under
the pastorship of Father Cotter was
! = ~; ;erIt all
all things done.
And Jealous was he. The mere
routine of pastoral work was never his
rule. He sought out occasions of work;
and once discovered, quickly We're they
put into profit A special instance to
be noted is his preaching of total alb
stinence, not only in his own diocese,
but throughout the whole United
States. In his parish of Winona while
he was yet priest, the cause of total
abstinence f1ourished as in no othei
parish in Minnesota. At one time presi-
dent of the American Total Abstinence
Union and general lecturer he preach
! ed total abstinence in most of the
large cities of the country where his
name today is held in grateful rever-
ence. In the cause of christian educa-
I tfon he was ever tireless; as a priest
he brought to the parish Of st; Thomas
the Sisters of Notre Dame: as a bishop
he stimulated the building up of schools
in nearly all the districts Of the diocese
and under his guiding hand the Semin-
ary of Winona for the education of
young women and the convent and
Normal School of the Sisters of ST
Francis of Rochester have grown to
their present magnificent proportions:
AS bishop will he be chiefly known
in the annals of the future. When in
1889 the resolution was to be taken to
erect a new diocese in Southern Min
nesota, there was no hesitation as to
who should lay it's foundation and rear
it's walls into the noble structure that
was to be the pride of religion in the
valley of the Mississippi. The pastor
of the parish of st. Thomas, who had
proven himself to be the best of priests
/! The good priest makes the good bishop
whose office is but the enlargement OF
the priesthood, a widening out upon a
larger scale the work of his parish.
How true all this turned out to be in
: the case of Bishop Cotter, the Diocese
of Winona today stands witness. The
number of priests, the number of
churches have more than doubled. And
the priests. guided and stimulated by
the example and the work Of their
bishop, are men whose praises are or
the lips of the people. The churches
planned as they largely were by Bishop
Cotter, are examplars Of architectural
art. The faithful laity gladly yielded
to impulses coming from bishop and
from priests-and, today, as Bishop
| Cotters episcopal work closes its
records, the Diocese of Winona stands
forth as one of the prosperous. flourish
ing dioceses of America, in the growth
i and development of which the Catho.
lie church reposes its most earnest
hopes, and which she extols before the
world. as the tokens that the divine
vitality infused into her nineteen cen
turies ago still course through her
} veins, that she is still. as Of old, the
mother of a glorious race of Apostles
still today the mother of christian men
and women whose professions and
manner Of life tell the divine source
whence flow across their souls the
graces Of spiritual edihcation.
} His own flock was. of course. the
chief care Of Bishop Cotter. But sc
generous, so large minded was he thai
beyond the confines Of his flock his
mind travelled in search Of other fields
!, wherein to labor, of other opportuni.