Catholic World, Vol. 24, October, 1876, to March, 1877: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and ScienceVarious
Religion
Catholic World, Vol. 24, October, 1876, to March, 1877: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
A gloom seemed to have fallen over the city. The streets leading to
the glebe-house were filled all the next day and late into the night
with a noiseless throng; and hour after hour the whisper went from one
to another, “He still lives, but there’s no hope.” All this time the
dying prelate remained unconscious. The heavy breathing and the dull
pulse were all that told the watchful and sorrowing attendants that he
yet lived. From his bedroom to the drawing-room, in which he had at
times received such a brilliant company, they carried the dying man
for air. Those who wished were allowed in to see him; but he saw not
the anxious faces that gazed sorrowfully for a moment and then passed
away; he heard not the low chant of the Litany for the Dying that was
borne out through the open windows on the still night-air; he knew not
of the tears that were shed by those who loved and honored him, and
who could not, in the presence of death, repress or hide their sorrow.
At midnight on Thursday, the 27th of July, the bell of the cathedral
tolled out to tell the quiet city that the good archbishop lived no
more.
The next day, in the same apartment, the corpse was laid in state, and
was visited by hundreds of all creeds and classes, who came to take
their last look at all that remained on earth of the wearied worker
who had at last found rest. What were the thoughts of many who looked
upon that face, now fixed in death? Among the throng were those who
had come to him weighed down by sorrow and sin, and had left him
lightened of their loads and strengthened in their resolutions of
atonement and amendment by his eloquent words of advice. Some had felt
his wide-spreading charity; for his ear and heart were ever open to a
tale of distress, and he gave with a free and open hand, and his
tongue never told of what his hand let fall. The general feeling was
one of bereavement; for the great multitude of his people knew not his
worth till they had lost him. Who would take his place? They might
find his equal in learning, in eloquence, even in work; but could they
find one in whom were united all the qualities that had so eminently
fitted him for the position he so ably filled? Perhaps there were
others present who had to regret that they had misjudged him, that
they had been uncharitable in their thoughts toward him, that they had
not assisted as they should have done the great, good, and unselfish
man who had worked not to enrich or exalt himself, but who had worn
out his life in the struggle for the welfare of his people and the
glory of his church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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