Glacier County chief., 1940-07-19
PRIEST PIONEER
DIES IN BELGIUM
REV. FIR. PAUWELYN SERVED MON.
TANA CHURCHES IN EARLY
DAYS
Was for IL Years Pastor of Billings
Parish; Passes Away in Cottage in
Foreign Land Which He Had Named
Montana"

The death in April in Belgium
of the Rev. Cyril Pauwelyn. for IL
years pastor of st. Patrick's Cath
Ollie church in Billings, occurred
in his little cottage. which he had
named Montana" Montana, in
which he was the first secular
priest ordained and whose Catholic
churches he served SO years. al
ways meant a great deal to Father
come as young man. Over the
state-and particularly in the yell
lowstone valley region - evidences
of his contributions to the church
are many.
Father Pauwelyn was born in Poe
capelle. West Flanders, Belgium, April
26. 1853 His general studies were in
ply in Rouller's. his theology course
partly in Bruges and partly in the
American college of Louvain.
Reached Helena in 1885
Although % months short of the
canonical age for priesthood, the young
Pauwelyn was permitted to leave his
Flanders home as a deacon on Aug
%. 1885. He reached Helena Sept. 81,
1885. Within a short time he was Or
dained the first priest for the diocese.
His parish extended from Helena to
VIC DahObd si4ll was bNI
one passenger train day and an oc-
casional freight train.
The arrival in Helena in the fall of
1887 Of two more Belgian priests per-
mitted the division of the parish. and
Father Pauwelyn moved his headquar-
tiers to Miles City, where on Oct 49,
1897. he took charge of the parish en-
bracing Dawson. Custer and Yellow
stone counties, then covering also Car
bon and Sweet Grass, 56,365 square
miles in ALL
Was Kept Busy
Once he wrote a former teacher in
Belgium:
TT is a month today since my or
dination and I have not spent two
consecutive days in Helena Yesterday
returned from mining camp, Marys-
ville-a drive of % miles uphill from
the city The day after tomorrow l
shall leave again. Every Sunday for
eight consecutive weeks 1 am booked
for another place, and when the first
merry-go-round will be over, it will
have to be repeated. Montana is settled
with Catholics. more so than Oregon
and Washington. and the Montana
Catholics are sturdy and hardy sons
and daughters of Erin. mostly rearing
large families. They are devotedly at
tached to the church. In six of
the places on my circuit there are
churches; namely. in Missouri valley.
Boulder valley. Miles City and Boze-
man. and there is one IN the course
of construction at Livingston. The peo-
pie of many other localities would will
ingly raise funds to build chapel if
they had but the assurance to have
service once every two months. I am
on the lookout for a month with five
Sundays to give either Wicks or Greg
DRY chance to hear mass. These towns
number 200 adherents to the faith and
eight months have come and gone
since the last appearance of priest
In their midst. The day before yester-
day had seven baptisms at Gloster.
and so it Is everywhere"
Adds Two Churches
To those churches which Father
Pauwelyn named he added a church at
Marysville and one at Glendive. At
the first-named place the building was
erected under his own supervision
while at the other it was acquired by
purchase from the Congregationalists
whose meeting house it had been.
To attend so many churches was In
itself no small task, yet the task was
increased through the long distances
the missionary had to travel an6
through the countless small stations
with two, three or more families an
x1OuS Tor some SOrC OF SERVICE
From Helena to the Dakota line
along the Northern Pacific, the dis.
lance was 500 miles, all within the
limits Of the same parish, and the rail.
road facilities being poor one passen'
ger train a day and an occasional
| freight train-the caboose of tn,
freight was used quite as often as TIT
chair car or smoker Of the passenger
When there was no train, the resource
full priest would prevail upon the keep
er Of a section to get out the handca,
and carry him to the next station
Twice he made the trip from Heleni
to Glendive mostly by handcar. o.
other occasions the horse and stag
were called into use.
From 1887 to 1891, the year in which
he was transferred from Miles City t,
Butte and Dillon. Father Pauwely1
improved the churches at Miles City
Glendive and Billings, secured the sit
and raised the funds for the frs
church ct Red Lodge, at which plac
he was also the first priest to visit
at . time when the houses were a
log eahtnA In . log cabin he said II
firyt mas and peI1ogmed the TN