The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-12-18
ARCHBISHOP will
!. PASS F|FT|ETH
MILESTONE
Half Century Of Priesthood
of the ST. Paul Arch
diocese

Archbishop John Ireland Of st. Paul
will celebrate tho fiftieth anniversary
Of his ordination to the priesthood
Thursday. December 81. Tho occasion
%scrvance. this being tho wish Of the
archbishop. Other than such quiet
ceremony as the archbishop may par
Eipate in to commemorate the day,
there will be no religious celebration.
The archbishop will have past his
seventy-third birthday anniversary by
more than three months when the day
arrives. He will have been fifty years
a priest, thirty-f1ve years q bishop and
twenty-four years an archbishop.
Born at Burnchurch, Kilkenny
county. Ireland, Sept. II, 1898, John
Ireland, at the age Of II, came with
his parents to the United States, reach
ing here in 1S49. His parents lived
three years at Chicago. and then came
to st. Paul, where the boy studied in
the cathedral school for a veal In
the Petit scminaire. MaXimeux. near
Lyons, France. where he studied the
classic for four years.
Rt. Rev. Thomas l.. Grace succeeded
Bishop Cretin in charge of the see OF
st. Paul, and in 1861, when the young
cleric returned. to the United States
having first entered the scholasticate
vi lIIc l1dl lSI 1dlIlC1S dS (4OIllOCAs AlSoA
IiNeres. where he completed his stud
les in the year that the great civil wal
began in this country, he found the
north involved in the great conflict
His aged bcnefactor, Bishop Grace. or.
dained him to the priesthood Decem-
her Il, 1861, and in January. 1862
Father Ireland was appointed chaplain
of the Fifth Minnesota Volunteer regi'
ment, then about to go south.
Chaplain in Civil War.
He accompanied the regiment into
the field and served through the hard
campaigning and heavy fighting of the
year 1862 in the Mississippi valley
He came out of the campaign with 9
splendid war record, reported to st
Paul for clerical duty n was as
signed to the rectorship Of the cathe.
dral and named secretary of the
diocese.
When the civil var had ceased and
the great period Of development OF
the northwest began, Father ireland
became identified with it and his name
soon became known outside h con
fines Of the state. In 1863 he became
president of the Total Abstinence
Union of America and thence dates
his fame as a worker in the temper
ance cause.
Father Ireland attended the vatican
council in 1870 as the representative
of Bishop Grace, and when Rt. Rev
James NJ. O'Gorman. vicar-apostolic Of
Nebraska, died in 1875, was named te
succeed him.
Bishop Grace appealed to the vati'
can and had the appointment annull'
ed, but had Father Ireland made CO.
adjutor bishop of st. Paul, instead
with the right Of succession. To thit
Office he was consecrated Dec. Fl
1875. on the date corresponding to tina,
of his ordination fourteen years be.
No sooner had Father Ireland be-
come Bishop Ireland than he begar
the work of %coloniZing the northwest
In this cause he worked through the
National Colonization association. Ir
1876 he brought 900 Catholic colonists
to Minnesota and in 1877 he bought
from the old st. Paul & Pacific Rail
way company, about $4,000 aces OF
agricultural lands which were devoted
to the same purpose.
Colonies Northwest.
He became q colonist and agriculur.
list on a lar &c scale, studied deeply the
needs of tho country n of the set.
tiers and made himself an important
part Of the great work that was filling
the country with homes and building
up towns and cities.