Famous Givers and Their GiftsBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Famous Givers and Their Gifts
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Philanthropists
While the college was building, the heirs, with the not unusual
disregard of the testator's desires, endeavored to break the will. Mr.
Girard had given the following specific direction in his will: "I enjoin
and require that no ecclesiastic, missionary, or minister of any sect
whatsoever shall ever hold or exercise any station or duty whatever in
the said college, nor shall any such person ever be admitted for any
purpose, or as a visitor, within the premises appropriated to the
purposes of the said college:--In making this restriction I do not mean
to cast any reflection upon any sect or person whatsoever; but as there
is such a multitude of sects, and such a diversity of opinion amongst
them, I desire to keep the tender minds of the orphans, who are to
derive advantage from this bequest, free from the excitement which
clashing doctrines and sectarian controversy are so apt to produce. My
desire is that all the instructors and teachers in the college shall
take pains to instil into the minds of the scholars the purest
principles of morality, so that on their entrance into active life they
may from inclination and habit evince benevolence toward their
fellow-creatures, and a love of truth, sobriety, and industry, adopting
at the same time such religious tenets as their matured reason may
enable them to prefer." The heirs of Mr. Girard claimed that by reason
of the above the college was "illegal and immoral, derogatory and
hostile to the Christian religion;" but it was the unanimous decision of
the Supreme Court that there was in the will "nothing inconsistent with
the Christian religion, or opposed to any known policy of the State."
On Sept. 30, 1851, the body of Stephen Girard was removed from the Roman
Catholic Church, but not without a lawsuit by the heirs on account of
its removal, to the college, and placed in a sarcophagus in the
vestibule. The ceremony was entirely Masonic, the three hundred orphans
witnessing it from the steps of the college. Over fifteen hundred Masons
were in the procession, and each deposited his palm-branch upon the
coffin. In front of the sarcophagus is a statue of Mr. Girard, by
Gevelot of Paris, costing thirty thousand dollars.
Girard College now has ten white marble auxiliary buildings for its
nearly or quite two thousand orphans. There are more applicants than
there is room to accommodate. Its handsome Gothic chapel is also of
white marble, erected in 1867. Here each day the pupils gather for
worship morning and evening, the exercises, non-sectarian in character,
consisting of a hymn, reading from the Bible, and prayer. On Sundays the
pupils assemble in their section rooms at nine in the morning and two in
the afternoon for religious reading and instruction; and at 10.30 and 3
they attend worship in the chapel, addresses being given by the
president, A. H. Fetterolf, Ph.D. LL.D., or some invited layman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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