Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1914-04-25
Father Edward Fenwick Built
First Church Within It's
Limits.
CathOlicity Had Been Planted
and Chapel Erected Near
Sandusky.
MISSIONARIES TO The INDIANS
BY James A. Rooney.


The sixty-seventh anniversary OF
the erection of the diocese of Cleve-
land occurred on Thursday, April
23, as noted in our Catholic Ameri-
can Chronology, and though the
diocese was not established until
1S47, by division of the diocese of
Cincinnati, which up to that time
comprised the entire State of Ohio,
yet Catholicity had been planted
within its borders almost a century
before. It was in 1851, on or near
the site of the present city of San
dusky (anglicized from the old
ing where the water Is pure")
that a missionary chapel was built
by the Jesuit Father Armand de la
Richardie's Wyandots, and this was
also the first shrine of the faith
within the limits of the State of
Ohio. 1t was only an Indian mis-
sion, but it was maintained by the
Jesuits until hostilities between the
French and English drove them
forth, and Father Potter was the
last Jesuit missionary among the
Western Hurons. For more than
fifty years there were few Catholic
settlers and fewer priests to keep
alive the spark of faith, but from
the present condition of Catholicity
and the wonderful growth of the
church in that northeastern section
of Ohio, now included in the Cleve-
land diocese, no Catholic will doubt
the efficacy of the holy sacrifice
n. -
by the Jesuits for their Indian con-
verts. -
Not till Father Edward Fenwick,
the Dominican apostle of Ohio, was
sent by Bishop Flaget, of Bardstown,
in 1917, to attend the few Catholics
whom the tide of immigration from
the East and from Europe had sent
to settle in the counties now in
cluded in the Cleveland diocese,
were any systematic efforts made
for the regular celebration of mass
and the administration of the sacra-
ments. 1t was he who built the
first permanent church within the
limits of that diocese, near Dun
cannon, in Columbiana county, as
early as 1920, and it was at Wooster,
in Wayne county, also within that
diocese, that he surrendered his soul
to God, September 26, 1882, dying
of the yellow fever scourge, after
ten years of arduous labor as a
missionary Bishop.
He was in truth the Apostle of
Ohio and his example as a mis-
sionary, evangelist and church
builder was faithfully followed by
long succession of able and Jealous
priests. until at the sixth provincial
council of Baltimore, convened May
10, 1916, the growth of the church
in Northeastern Ohio was recog-
nized to be such as to require its
separation from the diocese of Gin
cinnati, with a Bishop of its own.
The council was attended by twenty"
three Bishops and they provided for
carving out of the diocese of Cincin-
natl the diocese of Cleveland, and
out of the diocese of New York OF
those Of Albany and Buffalo. In
approving these provisions Rome
appointed the Right Rev. Louis
Amadeus Rape as the first Bishop
of Cleveland; the Right Rev. John
McCloskey, created our first Ameri-
can Cardinal March Is, 1875, as
first Bishop of Albany, and the
Right Rev. John Timon, the noted
Lazarist missionary, as first Bishop
of Buffalo.
And not without its special sig
nificance is the fact that at the same
provincial council the Bishops with
a unanimous and enthusiastic voice
selected and proclaimed the Blessed
Virgin Mary, conceived without sin,
as the patroness OF the United
States. Bishop Rape was born at
Ardrehem, France, February 2
1901; was ordained at Arras, March
IA, 1929; was consecrated first
Bishop OF Cleveland October 10
1s47. and after an episcopate OF
nearly a quarter of century. dur
ing which he spent himself in the
discharge of his exacting duties
gained the love of his people and
the esteem and respect OF all hi
fellow citizens regardless OF creed
he voluntarily laid aside the dignit,
OF the purple. resigned his charge
and retired to the diocese OF Bur
lington, VT, where he performed thu
labors of an humble missionary NJ
TO the day OF his death there at thu
age of seyenty-six years, Septenbel