The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-06-09
EMMANUEL LOUIS MASOUERAY
SERMON OF THE MOST REV.
ARCHBISHOP AT THE FuNER-
AL MASS.

His monument is built: his monu
ment will endure. 1t is the Cathedral
of st. Paul.
Emmanuel Louis Masqueray-the
architect of the Cathedral of st. Paul:
this, adown the years, his title OF
fame, his claim to remembrance and
gratitude.
do not pause to describe the
Cathedral of ST. Paul. You know it,
you see it. 1t is the pride of your
city, an exemplar in America of what
rs best, most sublime in sacred archi-
lecture. To name it is to award high
est praise to Emmanuel Louis
Masqueray. His mind it was that,
in dreams of the true and the beau
tiful, pictured in radiant glow it's
majestic walls, it's sky-towering cup
ola, the graceful curvings of it's
arches and chapels, its superb and
meaningful sanctuary His pencil it
was that reduced the vision to visibly-
charted tracings, putting every frag-
ment, every stone, in it's place,
guarding well its inspiring proper
tions, so that comeliness surely
stepped forward with strength and
grandeur, and severest commands of
art were challenged to discover in
length, in breadth, in height, space
for the touch of criticism. His voice
it was that guided every movement
of hand of workman, every tool lent
in cooperation, lest slightest misap-
prehension of design were possible,
lest slightest error lessened the
charnlsof perfection of detail, or of
fullness of harmony in the entireness
of the great structure, built to the
glory of the Omnipotent God and the
spiritual delectation of the sons of
men. The Cathedral of st. Paul is
the monument built to him by him
self: no other tribute is needed; no
other tribute to-day should be offered
to his memory.
Mr.. Masqueray was the chosen
child of art-the child of art in every,
throbbing of soul, in every pencilling
of finger. From his mind and his
heart art sprung as from native
foupt.
Art ennobles him who is blessed
with it's radiance. The essence of art
is to rise above the common and the
ordinary of earth, to peer into the
supernal to vest itself in the garb of
the higher and more blessed things
of the greater world of God, and
thence bring down to the world of
men inspiration to unfold it's wings
and seek thoughts and resolves to
save it from the depressing lowliness
of the mere material and the mere
sensual. Ethereal things are the fit
food of the immaterial and spiritual
soul: they are too sublimate to be
seen in their glory by corporeal eye:
art is missioned to lower them into
visible form and symbolism. The
first steppings towards the culture
that is civilization is it's initiatory
intuitions of art: the later degrees
of civilization in a people are the
measures given by their conscious
contact with art and the fruitages
born of art. The artist is one whose
own soul is by nature attuned to the
things of the higher world the
artist is, one who is capable of uplift
ing the souls of others to the things
of this higher world.
A - ,1fr be-.
when it borrows it's task from re-
ligion-from the things of the AL
mighty God Himself and of His own
more immediate regions of being and
life. God is the supreme truth and
beauty: created things are the more
true and beautiful as they resemble
the Almighty God and mirror His
perfections. Hence in the history of
nations the highest flights of art,
whether through sculptured stone, or
painted canvas, are those that.
visualize the divine, the attributes of
the Almighty God Himself, the spir-
itual effulgences of those attributes
upon the saintliest of His creatures.
The chosen home of art, where it
expands itself into most joyous radia-
tions, are the temples of religion; in
their own symbolic structure, in
sculptures and the paintings that
serve the purposes of religion, and
reflect its rich fruits of holiness and
spiritual action.
Mr. Masqueray was at his full
revelation in his great Cathedral.
His faith taught him the things of
religion: his heart bound him to
them; and, obeying mind and heart,
his pencil wrought marvels of gran
deur and beauty. Alas, for the Cathe-
dral, To-day the soul of Emmanuel
Louis Masqueray is fed from earth:
his hand is benumbed:: his pencil is
henceforward stilled and made mo-
tionless. The Cathedral has not been
garbed in it's fullness of beauty.
Others must take his place in the
completion of the task. Will others
put into its service the warmth of
love that went out to it from the
heart Of Masqueray? Will others lend
to it the lines of supernal beauty,
that fell so gracefully from the PEN
cillings of Emmanuel Louis Masque-
ray