Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 4, April, 1886Various
Religion
Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 4, April, 1886
Various
Periodicals
There is one incident in the primate's life which he seldom touches on,
but which caused immense amusement at the time it occurred. While Bishop
of Richmond, he was the defendant in a suit relating to some church
property. When he was called to the witness stand, the plaintiff's
lawyer, a distinguished legal luminary, who still shines in Richmond,
after vain endeavors to involve the witness in contradictions, struck on
a plan which he thought would annoy the bishop. He thereupon questioned
Mr. Gibbons' right to the title of bishop of Richmond, and called on him
to prove his claim to the office. The defendant's lawyer, of course,
objected to this as irrelevant; but the bishop, with a quiet smile, said
he would comply with the request if allowed a half-hour to produce the
necessary papers. This was allowed. The bishop left the court room and
returned in twenty minutes with a document which he proceeded to read
with great solemnity, all the more solemn as the paper was all in Latin.
The plaintiff's lawyer pretended to take notes industriously, bowing his
head once in a while as if in acquiescence, and seeming perfectly
convinced at the end. When the reading was finished, he announced that
the Papal Bulls just read were entirely satisfactory, at the same time
apologizing for his expressed doubts. The next day it leaked out that
the bishop, unable to find the Papal Bulls at his residence, had
brought to court and read a Latin essay on Pope Leo the Great, written
by one of the ecclesiastical students, and forwarded by the president of
the college as a specimen of the young man's skill in Latin composition.
That smart lawyer has not heard the last of it yet.
As an Author and Orator.
Archbishop Gibbons is the author of one volume, "The Faith of Our
Fathers," which has met with a larger sale than any Catholic book
published in America. More than one hundred thousand copies have been
sold since its publication in 1877. The work is made up chiefly of
simple sermons on the doctrines of Catholicity, delivered while on the
mission in North Carolina.
As a pulpit orator, the primate has many superiors in the hierarchy. He
has neither an impressive presence nor a good voice. He seldom attempts
elaborate discourses. He is at his best in simple appeals to the heart,
and to this fact is due his missionary success. Some of his
fellow-bishops may have greater power to convince the intellect, but
none can touch the feelings more deeply.
The Irish as Conspirators.
In a recent issue of the _Nineteenth Century_, a magazine published in
London, is an article by Mr. Arnold Forster, in which the following
statement was used:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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