The Irish standard., 1915-09-01
The Diocese of St. Paul

of Milwaukee. It was due, no doubt,
to the suggestions of these men, we'll
acquainted with the conditions in the
west and filled with zeal for the well
fare of religion, that the council in
one of its meetings resolved upon
petitioning the Holy See for the es-
tablishment of an episcopal see in the
adjacent city of St. Paul. The resolu-
ton was carried into effect, and let
ters with an appropriate petition were
sent to Rome; but for over a year no
action was taken on it. His Emf
nence, Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of
the Sacred Congregation of Propa-
ganda, in his answer, dated August 9,
1880, explains the reason for the de-
lay. A very severe tempest (gravis-
sima tempestas), he says, afflicted the
church of Rome at that time. AS a
matter of fact the city of Rome was
then in the throes of revolution, the
papal government was overthrown,
Pope Plus TX. (1846-78) was COM
PEELED to flee and seek safety in the
city of Gaeta in the neighboring king
dom of Naples, where he arrived No.
vember "A, 1913; it was not until April
II, 1850, that he was able again to
return to the eternal city. In con-
sequence of these disturbances the
Sacred Congregations of Rome were
unable to meet, and transact the busi-
ness for the church universal. AS
soon as order was restored, the petit
ton of the American bishops was
duly considered and acted upon. A
papal brief was issued, July l9, 1880,
which decreed the erection of the
episcopal see of St. Paul, and made it
suffragan to the metropolitan see
of St. Louis. Afterwards, February
IL, 1875, it was assigned as a sucragan
see to the ecclesiastical province of
Milwaukee; and finally, May 4, 1888,
it became itself an archdiocese. In
the ecclesiastical province subject to
it are found the suffragan sees of St.
Cloud, established September p, 1889;
Duluth, established October 3, 1889;
Winona, established October 8, 1889;
Fargo, established October 3, 1889;
Sioux Falls, established November,
1889; Lead, established August f, 1902;
Crookston, established March q, 1910;
and Bismarck, established March u,
1910.
The diocese of St. Paul received its
name from the city of St. Paul; the
origin of which is connected with the
history of Lord Selwirk's colony in
the Red river valley near St. Boniface,
Manitoba. Said colony was opened in
1872; but many of the first settlers
soon found themselves in the neces-
sity of seeking a more advantageous
location elsewhere, because several
calamities, such as floods, early and
late frosts, grasshoppers, ETC., visited
the settlement, destroyed the crops,
and deprived the colonists of their
livelihood. Beginning with the year
1927 several parties, composed chiefly
Minnesota, and settled on land located
near the confluence of the Mississippi
and the St. Peter or Minnesota rivers.
Some of them put up quarters on the
military reservation of Fort Smelling,
some on the right bank of the Mime
sofa near what is now Mendoza, and
some others along the eastern side
of the Mississippi. In the spring of
the year 1888 Major Plympton, then
the commanding officer at the fort,
expelled all the settlers from the res
ervation, on the ground that this gov
ernment property was intended only
for military purposes, and that some
of the settlers demoralized the soldiers
and the Indians gathering at the fort
by the sale of liquor tn them. Most
of the colonists thus expelled crossed
the Mississippi river and settled along
its eastern bank; with those that
had preceded them in the same
locality, and with those that fol-
lowed soon after they became the
earliest inhabitants of what was to be-
come the city of St. Paul. The name
was selected by Father Lucien Galtier
and was given to the settlement be-
cause the chapel built therein for
the Catholics was placed under the
patronage of St. Paul, the Apostle of
the Gentiles. In letter written in
1854 hx Father Caller to Bishon