The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-12-14
Continued from page 49,
PEN PICTURE OF NOTED
PRELATE.

friends and never lost one; his ideas
made opponents but he in time won
them over or answered them ALL
AS an instance of his influence in
France, it may be mentioned that the
College of Meximieux, where he was
educated, was the only one in the
whole country that was spared from
the general confiscation.
Gifts and Characteristics.
That he was ambitious is granted,
but his was a laudable ambition. He
spared no effort to rise to the full
height of every occasion. A great
occasion was made still greater by a
discourse from him. He sought office
not for its privileges and trappings,
Tor which he cared nothing. but to put
his light on the candlestick where it
might illumine all who are in the
house. How impersonally he regarded
MS trlumphs may be gagged from the
TACT that he never spoke of them
Among hundreds of instances that
one may be recalled when in a great
assemblage of Cardinals and Bishops
he was suddenly asked for by Pope
Leo to voice his message to America
Archbishop Ireland had had his final
audience with the Pope the night
previous. 1t was by mere chance that
he had been induced to go to the
Vatican. He was sought for and made
acquainted with the Pope's wish At
once, speaking in French, he gave a
tWenty-minute perfervid discourse, at
the close of which the Pope said:
You have we'll interpreted my senti-
ments." Count Vannutelli, who mar
rated the incident, remarked in his
Italian way: 1T was twenty minutes
of glory" The Archbishop was never
heard to mention it. He. was equally
reticent with regard to his historic
appearance at Orleans as the pane.
gyrist of Joan of Arc.
In controversy he was urbanity it.
self. If the button flew off the foil,
as we may say that it did when his
antagonists time and again fell into
disgrace, he never thrust home.
He had many gifts. He was a strik-
ing orator, a forceful writer, an ardent
student of the classics, which he read
with glowing appreciation. Ten min
utes after stirring up with his elo-
quence town and a whole country
side, he was often found asleep in
the train with his head on his valise
Tor a pillow, speeding homeward, but
he often spent many hours of the night
porlng over some new edition of his
taVorite authors. He was par excel
lence a conVersationalist. Drawing on
his marvellous memory, enriched with
travel, wide cquaintanceship, vast
erudition and varied interests, he
made his conversation always intense
ly instructive and entertaining. In
social functions he acquitted himself
perfectly. Ordinarily genial and al
ways courteous, he could storm at
times. But his storms carried no
blighting hail, and the sunshine ap-
peared afterwards brighter than be-
fore. No one ever was more forgiving.
and forgiveness with him meant COM
plete oblivion.
To this Christian spirit, besides his
zeal for the public welfare of the
Church, must be added his zeal for
her inner life. He observed the fasts
strictly and allowed none of his vari-
GUS activities to encroach on his time
of prayer. Impulsive in many things
and in attire far from fastidious, in
Church functions he was stately and