"Thus prepared, and having received ordination at the hands of the late lamented Archbishop Bayley, you went forth five and twenty years ago to-day, 'to labor as a good soldier of Christ' in the Diocese of Newark. "You were first selected to assist as Vice-President the present distinguished Bishop of Rochester in conducting at Madison the college of Seton Hall which has since developed into the far-famed institution at South Orange, much of whose success may be traced back to the fact that you reproduced at Madison the zeal which you had seen exercised, and the discipline which you had seen enforced at your mountain 'Alma Mater.' "You were afterwards placed over the missions of Morris county, including Mendham, Basking Ridge and other neighboring stations, where you erected churches and attended to the spiritual wants of that extensive district, at the same time discharging the office of chaplain to the infant community of the Sisters of Charity at Madison, and assisting them very materially in the management of their temporal affairs. "In 1863 the church of St. John the Baptist, Paterson, was without a pastor. The Right Rev. Bishop, knowing the importance of this growing city, which has since become one of the most successful manufacturing centres of the country, and thoroughly appreciating its religious wants, cast his eyes over his clergy, to find one capable of holding the reins of its destiny with a vigorous hand. He knew that in large manufacturing cities, there were numerous dangers to souls, and none more to be dreaded than those arising from intemperance. With that correctness of judgment which always marked his appointments, he fixed his eyes on the Vice-President of Seton Hall, and commissioned him to enter on a new sphere of labor on the banks of the Passaic. Here, indeed, you found a field not wholly uncultivated, for zealous priests had preceded you. That veteran missionary and church-builder, Father Senez, now the highly esteemed pastor of St. Mary's, Jersey City, had labored some years on this mission with distinguished success. The lamented Fathers O'Reilly, Quinn and Callan had left the impress of their zeal and piety on the Catholic population of Paterson. Here you found a spacious church, and a large congregation of generous and devoted Catholics. Nevertheless your penetrating mind soon perceived that the wants of your growing flock were not sufficiently provided for, and that the church was too small to accommodate the crowds which presented themselves Sunday after Sunday for divine worship. In 1865, therefore, having purchased a most suitable location, you laid the corner stone of this magnificent temple, one of the noblest monuments of religion in the United States. After five years of ceaseless toil, at night collecting from your generous flock the necessary funds, by day laboring even with your own hands in the quarry, measuring the stone, mounting the walls, and giving directions to the