SAINT ISIDORE
352
SAINT ISIDORE
Right Rev. Charles La Rocque, cousin of the former
bishop, who for twenty -two years was pastor of
St. John's. The new bishop was a highly-cultured
man with rare financial ability; reaUzing that the
debts of his cathedral called for unusual measures, he
closed the episcopal palace and retired with his staff
to Beloeil, where he combined the duties of bishop
and pastor of this parish till his death on 25 July,
1875. Bishop La Rocque assisted at the Vatican
Council. He was instrumental in founding the Sher-
brooke Diocese. He opened the first house of the
Dominicans in Canada by giving them a parish in
his titular city, and had the satisfaction of effectively
reducing the cathedral debt and placing the diocese
on a satisfactory money basis.
The fourth bishop, Mgr. Louis-Zephirin ]\Ioreau, was consecrated on 16 January, 1876. He had come from Montreal in 1S52 as secretary to Bishop Prince. Bishop Moreau reopened the episcopal residence, and on 4 July, ISSO, dedicated the stone cathedral which he had built with the monej' amassed b}' the economy of his predecessor. His cathedral chapter was installed in August, 1S76, by the Most Rev. Dr. Conroy, Bishop of Ardagh and first Papal Delegate to Canada. On Bishop Moreau's invitation the Marist Brothers came from France and established their novitiate in the dioce.se; he also founded a community to take charge of rural schools for boys and girls, under the name "Les Soeurs de St. Joseph". After seventeen years of administration he was given as coadjutor the Right Rev. Maxime Decelles (d. July, 1905); the latter was consecrated titular bishop of IDruzipara on 9 March, 1S93, and entered on his administration of the Diocese of St. Hyacinthe im- mediately on the death of Bishop Moreau (24 May, 1901). During his administration he opened the patronage of St. Vincent de Paul, and agitated the question of a new and larger cathedral. The execu- tion of this idea, however, was left to his successor, Rt. Rev. Alexis-Xistus Bernard, who was conse- crated by Archbishop Bruchesi on 15 February, 1906. Bishop Bernard is now in his sixty-third year. From 1876, either as secretary, archdeacon, or vicar- general, he was constant!}' a member of the admin- istration. In a series of ten volumes he has compiled and published with additional biographical notes the letters of the preceding bishops of St. Hyacinthe to the clergy and faithful of the diocese. Notwith- standing delicate health, since his elevation to the episcopate he has proved himself an indefatigable worker and an ardent apostle of temperance. He placed the patronage of St. Vincent de Paul on a stable basis, and, at the cost of $200,000, completely and beauti- fully restored and enlarged the old cathedral.
In the episcopal city of St. Hyacinthe are the following: the College-Seminary (dating from 1811) with 400 students, all following a classical curricu- lum; the mother-house of the Sisters of Charity (the Grey Nuns) with 400 members who have charge of the Hotel-Dieu; the mother-house of the Sisters of the Presentation, with GOO members; the mother- house of the cloistered Sisters of the Precious Blood; the c<;ntral monastery of the Dominican Fathers; the mother-house of the Sisters of St. Joseph; the con- vent of the Sisters of St. Martha, a community in charge of the domestic arrangements of the seminary; the novitiate of the Marist Brothers; the Institute of St. Vincent de Paul; a commesrcial college and an academy, both conducted by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.
The Diocese of St. Hyacinthe has 74 parishes, and a population of about 120,000, of whom 108,000 are Catholics. The clergy number 183 .secular and 18 regular priests. The reUgious communities num- ber 337 men and 861 women. In the diocese are: 2 superior teaching institutions, the Seminary of St. Hyacinthe and the Petit Seminaire de Sainte-
Marie de Monnoir, both under the direction of
secular priests; 6 commercial colleges; 56 academies;
435 primary schools. Six hospitals and asylums
provide for charitable wants.
Mandemenis des EvSgues de St. Hyncinthe; Hi.tloire du Seminaire de St. Hyacinthe; The Catholic Directory (1911); Le Canada eccMsiastique (1911). C. P. ChOQUETTE.
Saint Isidore, College of, in Rome, was originally founded for the use of Spanish Franciscans during the pontificate of Gregory XV. In the year 1625 the buildings passed into the hands of Father Luke Wad- ding, who, after making numerous additions and al- terations, and with the sanction of the General of the Friars Minor and of the Sovereign Pontiff, converted them into a college for the education of Irish Francis- can students. Within a few years. Wadding had pro- vided accommodation for, and had gathered within the walls of the new college, a community of over thirty religious; and some j'ears later the number had increased to fifty. Wadding was fortunate in being able to assure the success of the new undertaking by attracting to the college as professors some of the ablest members of the order at the time, all of them countrymen of his own. These included such men as Hickey, Fleming, Ponce, Walsh, and some years later Harold, Molloy, and Bonaventure Baron. The last- mentioned alone has to his credit no fewer than twenty-two volumes, in the various domains of philos- ophy, theology, history, and poetry. It is easy to un- derstand what prestige such distinguished teachers must have brought to the college. In fact, within thirty years of its foundation, we find no fewer than seventy of its alumni engaged as professors in various schools of the order. But its claim to recognition does not rest less in the stimulus which it gave to the study of Scotistic philosophy and theology during the seventeenth century than in the number of highly trained and efficient teachers which it sent forth. Its professors were all convinced adherents of the Fran- ciscan school and it is no exaggeration to say that, at a time when the doctrines of Scotus were beginning to lose favour even amongst Franciscans themselves, they found no more ardent nor able defenders than the professors of St. Isidore's College. It is to Wad- ding and his fellow-workers in the college that we owe the first complete edition of the Subtile Doctor's works, namely, the Lyons edition of 1639. While sending forth, year after year, numbers of zealous workers into the Irish mission, the college continued to possess amongst its professors men of acknowledged learning and merit.
On tlie occupation of Rom(> hv the French in 1798, St. Isidore's sut'fercd the fate of "other British institu- tions in the city. The friars were exjielled, and the college; and adjoining garden confiscated and put up for auction. They were bought in by the Prince of Piombino, who let the rooms out to lodgers, with the exception of a few which wen; reserved for one of the fathers who had volunteered to keep watch over the place until the advent of better times. These came with the return of the pojie in 1814. The college was soon restored to its rightful owners, and the year 1819 saw Father Hughes installed as superior over a fresh band of students who had come from Ireland to fill the places of those who had been expelled in 1798. Since then St. Isidore's has remained in undisturbed posses- sion of the Iri.sh Franciscans, for whom it still serves as the theological and philosophical trainiiig-iiouse of their students. Amongst its alumni may he men- tioned Dr. Fgan (d. 1814), first Bishop of Philad(>i- phia; Drs. Lambert (d. 1817), S(!allan (d. 1830), and Mullock (d. 1869), the two former vicars Apostolic, and the latter second Bishop of St. John's, Newfound- land; Dr. Hughes, Vicar Apostolic of Gibraltar; and Drs. Geoghegan (d. 1864) and Shiel (d. 1872), Bishops of Adelaide, Australia. The college library is justly
