Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/731

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CHICAGO


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CHICAGO


whose noble and generous nature endeared him to all who knew him. The Rev. Thaddeus Butler was made secretary and the Rev. John McMullen chancel- lor. It was the last named who induced the Sisters

of the Good Shepherd to take up their beneficent

work in Chicago. St. Columbkill's, St. Bridget's, St. James's, the Immaculate Conception, and St. John's parishes were also organized at this time. The re- finement and gentleness of Bishop Duggan, his ease

and grace of manner, made him socially very popular; while his public spirit was much appreciated by the community at large. In 1862 he went to Rome to be present at the canonization of the Japanese martyrs, and he attended in 1866 the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore. It was about this time that he gave unmistakable signs of the mental aberration to which he was finally to fall a victim. Acting upon the ad- vice of friends, he went to Carlsbad, expecting to re- cuperate his shattered health, but the effort was vain, and the condition of Bishop Duggan became such that he was removed, II April, 1N00. to the asylum of the Sisters of Charity in St. Louis. There, without recovering his mental powers, he remained till his death, 27 March, 1899. Bishop Duggan being in- capacitated, the Rev. T. J. Halligan took charge of the diocese.

Administrator appointed. — The Right Rev. Thomas Foley was .appointed coadjutor and administra- tor of the practically vacant see. and consecrated tit- ular Bishop of Pergamus, 27 February, 1870. He was born in Baltimore. Maryland, 6 March, 1822. On the completion of his preparatory studies at St. Mary's ( lollege, in his native city, and of his theologi- cal course at the seminary attached to this college, he was ordained priest by Archbishop Eccleston in the Cathedral of Baltimore, 16 August, 1846. After a short period spent on the missions of Montgomery County. Maryland, and as assistant pastor of St. Pat- rick's Church. Washington, he was appointed rector of the cathedral. He was made chancellor by Arch- bishop Kendrick, ami attended, in the capacity of Secretary anil notary, the plenary councils held in that city in 1852 and 1866. He was installed in the pro- Cathedral of the Holy Name, Chicago, 10 March. ls7u. Bishop Foley had hardly more than become acquainted with the needs of his charge when he was

called upon to witness the devastation of the church

property by tic gnat Chicago lire. Seven churches

together with their parochial residences and schools.

tlir \ 1 . ■ x i : 1 1 1 Brothers' Hospital. The llousr of Provi- dence, St. Xavier's Academy and Convent, an orphan asylum, and a Belect school conducted by the Christian Brothers were swept away. The bishop sustained th'- disaster with courage, and set himself to the work of reconstruction with commendable energy. St. Mary's cathedral being thus destroyed, the new cathe- dral of the Holy Name soon appeared on the site of the old church of that name. This structure is one of the impressive church edifices of Chicago. With gener- ous assistance from other dioeesos ami the exercise of indomitable energy on the pari of its priests and laity,

lie Chicago s i arose from the prostrate state

in which it had been left by the fire. At this time many of the religious orders began to assist in the development of the new life which seemed to have

been infused into the diocese, The bishop welcome.! to

his diocese the Franciscans, the Lazarists, the Servites, the Fathers of Saint-Viateur, and the Resurrection- ist, Owing to the growth attained by the diocese.

Bishop Foley in 1872 recommended that a portion of it be cut off and er.ct.d into a new see. and the Dio- cese of Peoria was created. The period of Bishop • administration was for much of the Diocese of Chicago a new birth. He saw churches, convents, asylum the work of years, wiped out in a

few hours. He saw these for the most part replaced by structures more commodious. He witnessed the


erection of more than twenty-five new churches, and saw in process of construction five new convents and seven academies. He purchased the Soldier's Home at the foot of Thirty-fifth st reel for an orphan asylum, and St. Mary's church, at Wabash Avenue and

Eldridge Court, he bought from the Congregation- alists. At his death, on the loth of February, 1879,

there were about three hundred churches in the dio- cese, and the number of priests had increased from one hundred and forty-two to two hundred and six. On the occasion of his installation he had declared that he came to do honour to the peace of Christ.

That his episcopacy had rendered this promised

service was universally admitted. Upon his death, after a brief administration of the diocese by the Rev. Dr. John McMullen, who had been the late bishop's

vicar-general, Bishop Feehan of Nashville, Tennessee, was promoted to the vacancy.

Cheated Archdiocese. — Patrick At gustine Fee- han was born at Spring Hill, Co. Tipporary. Ireland, on 20 August, 1820. At sixteen years of age I" 1 entered Castle Knock College, going from there to Maynooth, where he was appointed to the Dunboyne establish- ment. In 1852 he departed for America, proceeding to St. Louis, where he was ordained priest 1 Novem- ber, 1852. Two years later he was appointed succes- sor to Father O'Regan in the Theological Seminary of Carondelet. He was made pastor of St. Michael's church in 1858, and shortly after was transferred to the pastorate of the church of the Immaculate Con- ception, in both of which charges lie ever showed him- self the devoted and zealous priest. On the 7th of July, 1865, Father Feehan was chosen to succeed Bishop Whelan of Nashville, Tennessee. This diocese had suffered severely during the Civil War. Under the quiet but energetic administration of Bishop Feehan the demoralization of religion that followed in the wake of battle passed: churches multiplied, convents and parochial schools were reared, while the number of priests increased during his administration from twelve to twenty-seven. During the visitation of his diocese by cholera and yellow fever the labours and self-sacrifices of the bishop were unremitting. ( )n 10 September. 1880, Chicago was raised to the dignity of an archdiocese, and Bishop Feehan was made its first archbishop. The ceremony of his installation took place in the cathedral of the Holy Name in the November following. The archdiocese at this time comprised eighteen counties in the northern part of Illinois and there were one hundred and ninety-four churches and two hundred and four priests. In 1883 the archbishop went to Home with the other arch- bishops of the country to prepare the matter to be submitted to the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore.

In the next year he participated in the deliberations of this council. In December, 1887, the first synod..! the Archdiocese of I bicago was convened for the pur- pose, principally, of promulgating the decrees of the council. At this synod the first irremovable rectors in the archdiocese were appoint.. I.

t >n 1 November, 1890, Archbishop I eehan commem- orated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his elevation to the episcopacy, and the demonstration with which

ili. ( at holies of the archdiocese celebrated this event gave touching proof of the love and i teem they felt for their venerable archbishop. In 1899 the arch- bishop, failing in health, and pressed with (1 on-

stantly multiplying cares of his charge, asked for an

episcopal assistant. In answer to this request the Rev. Alexander McGavick was chosen auxiliary bishop to the diocese and consecrated titular Bishop

of Narcopolis, 1 May. 1899. Poor health, however, directly incapacitated him. and the Holy Set again petitioned for the needed aid, and the Rev.

I'. i. r Jami - \lul. 1... .ii wa- consecrated titular Bishop

of Tamassus, 2"> July, 1901. His energy and zeal were of valuable assistance to the archbishop, while