The Morning Star And Catholic Messenger

THE MORNING STAR AND CATHOLIC MESSENGER, SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 1871

Morning Star and Catholic Messenger.

NEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 1871.

ST. VINCENT'S ACADEMY.

FAIRFIELD, NEAR SHREVEPORT, LA.

This excellent Institution, situated within two miles of Shreveport, is conducted by the 'Daughters of the Cross,' the Mother House of this Order in this State being now established at this Convent.

On Saturday, July 25th, the distribution of premiums took place, the exercises for the day being of a most interesting and varied character, and giving conclusive evidence of the great improvement made by the young ladies during the past session under the careful training of the good Sisters. We are happy to learn that the Institution is in a most flourishing condition, and fully supplies the great want, so long felt in Northwestern Louisiana, of a first-class female academy.

We give in full the splendid 'Address' delivered on the occasion by T. A. Flanagan, Esq., one of the best lawyers and most esteemed citizens of our sister city of Shreveport. Mr. Flanagan is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, St. Joseph county, Indiana, which institution may justly feel proud of the polished gentleman. To many of our own citizens Mr. Flanagan is not unknown, having, a few years ago, while on a visit here, captured one of the fairest flowers of the Crescent City, the second daughter of our well-known and respected fellow citizen, Mr. John T. Moore.

Reverend Fathers, Sisters, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is certainly a refreshing pleasure some times to retire from the toil and turmoils of everyday life, from the wearying practical of the external, to the calm and gentle enjoyment of the internal, that loftier and better part of man, the intellect.

Many persons may pronounce this tedious. monotonous, uninteresting, but to me a School Exhibition, or Distribution, affords a pleasure deep and peculiarly characteristic; deep, that it is purely of the heart and intellect; characteristic, because it is a pleasure that no other occasion than this can so well and fully afford. With the magic power of Aladdin's fabled lamp, it invokes the good and guarding Genii of years agone, who led me by the hand, a boy again, free from sin and care; back to the loved and cherished scenes and happy days of youth; happy, indeed, because the world, its cares, its crimes, its griefs. Ah, my dear old Alma Mater! again I wander with the familiar freedom of a child at home, through her study rooms and science-laden halls! Again I ramble, sportive, fresh and free through her shady groves and playgrounds, pictured as of yore with the familiar faces, musical with the mingling voices of merry schoolmates.

Again I kneel before her chapel's altar-that spot of hallowed memories--offering the earnest prayer of childhood's heart for loved ones! And again I see and hear me first and loudest in that choir of boyish voices, chanting the midnight Christmas Mass, or raising in solemn solo that beautiful hymn of adoration to the new-born Saviour, 'Adeste fideles;' and then the ceremonies of Holy Week, so beautiful, so melancholy, so sweetly sad to the Catholic heart! These, followed by the festive joys of Easter Sunday-the gladsome, glorious chorus, 'Resurrexit sicut dixit!' All these are remembrances too sweet to be forgotten-almost too sacred to be aroused from memory's tomb!

And what but scenes like this can so well recall such memories as these? What can give quickly back to us, as fresh as yesterday, the free and happy days of youth? Here, within the brief ticking of an hour we live o'er again those months and years through which we so anxiously, so hopefully, so ambitiously struggled for honors like to these distributed here to-day; and have we forgotten our joys, our blushing pride at their reception, with parents and friends, no less proud and happy than we, to witness it? And is it no pleasure to recall these scenes, and see them o'er again in the happy faces before us!

Hence, I repeat, the pleasure of the present occasion is one, deep and characteristic. Where can we find such innocence, not pictured, but real, as here at a Convent School? And where can we find that innocence so jealously guarded and protected, as here at a Convent School? Where can we see so many and such bright and happy faces as always greet and gladden us at a school exhibition? And where can we find such full and gladsome hearts, whose fluttering throbs of innocent joy, give to the eyes their beam, to the cheeks their glow of purity and love? I believe that the past experience of every guest here to-day renders each fully capable of recognizing and appreciating the facts and feelings I express.

We have assembled here to enjoy this deep and characteristic pleasure, and I believe may speak for all, that we have fully enjoyed it. This distribution of premiums, my dear friends, is not so insignificant or trivial an affair as it is so often thought to be. The unheeding, busy world, may pass it lightly by, and deem it of but little consequence to the commerce of our country, to the growth and business of our town, or to the building of railroads and factories, and other great works of public improvement; but, in all seriousness, I assert, that our schools, both male and female, and their every proceeding which tends to the training of the mind and heart, and to the perfection of the education of the children and youth of our land, have everything to do with the commerce and growth, the public works and prosperity of our country.

You had as well assert that the foundries and work-shops had nothing to do with the massive iron columns that support some magnificent structure. As well tell me that the mallet and chisel had nothing to do with some magnificent marble shaft that points heavenward, telling, in ever-enduring letters, its history of the past, of men and deeds that were! As well tell me that the fountains, whose rivulets trickle down the far off mountain sides, have nought to do with the meandering streams that water, so widely and so well, the vale and forest on their winding way to the sea. As well tell me that the loom and the shuttle have nought to do with the royal tapestry of the monarch's halls! or as well tell me that the sunlight and the dews give no coloring to the flowers of the vale!

Take from us our schools, and with some hand you drag from the temple of Mammon that magnificent structure of commerce and science, its chief supporting column, the cultivated intellect of man. Take from us our schools, and you at once drag to earth, to a level with animal nature, that beautiful shaft, with all the lettering of its history, chiseled only by the Great Creator, the Master Architect himself, the elevated, the eternal mind of man.

Take from us our schools, and, with ruthless hand, you snatch from the palace of society its richest, most beautiful adornments, the refined accomplishments of woman. Take from us our schools, and you at once dry up, or poison, which is worse, the fountains of honesty, morality and virtue, whose waters now flow throughout, enrich and fructify the soil of society. In fine, take from us our schools, and you rob the flowers along the pathway of life, of all their beauteous tints and hues; you rob man of his morals, his honor-almost of his intellect; you cast woman from her elevated position, and deprive her of her virtues, her influence, and all else that make her lovely; you rob our homes of their happiness, our churches of their altars, our God of his worshipers. And because you would deprive Him of His worshipers, and His churches of their altars, you cannot rob us of our schools.

Teachers and schools have always been, and always will be: God himself was the first teacher; He taught Adam and Eve in the Garden, their duties: what they should do and should not do: what they should learn and should not learn. After their disobedience, God still taught them their duties-and they taught their children, and they theirs, until finally God established other teachers, in the persons of His prophets and priests.

Then, when it became necessary for the redemption and salvation of mankind to establish new laws and teach new doctrines, God became again a teacher in the person of our Saviour, who did nothing but teach during His whole life. He then sent His Apostles to teach 'all nations,' imparting to them the wisdom of the Holy Ghost, and promising to be with them 'all days, even to the consummation of the world.' Those Apostles instructed and established other teachers, and they others, both male and female, as their rapidly spreading doctrines, and the increasing numbers of their pupils demanded; and so on from age to age, down to the present day, to our own schools-and times, when we look around us and behold how faithfully and well has been executed the injunction of our Saviour, 'Go and teach ye all nations.' Point to me a nation or a people known to civilization, and there I will point to you teachers of the Catholic Church-those cinctured, cassock-clad missionaries, forever preaching and teaching:

Follow me from Zone to Zone, from the sunless clime of the Frigid to the over-heated Torrid; from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof: and wherever we find a Catholic Missionary, there, too, will we find those Vestal Virgins, those Hand Maids of the Church, teaching, refining, elevating their sex; spreading Christianity, and at all times and in all places, and under all circumstances, performing their self-abnegating, self-sacrificing works of charity and mercy,

Facing every danger
Fearing nought but God.
Trusting to the stranger,
Resting 'neath his sod.

It is a universally recorded and well known fact of history, that during those times of persecution, of anarchy and bloodshed, denominated by posterior historians as the 'dark ages,' when all other schools of science and of learning were crushed beneath the crimson car of Revolution; their every vestige wiped away by the bloody hand of Mars, the Church alone preserved, unadulterated, her teachers and her schools; and to her is the world indebted for the arts and sciences that would else have been swept away, and from them have flown the sciences and arts of the world-Geography, Astronomy, Logic, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Theology, all found birth, as sciences, in Catholic schools.

Paintings, that seem to need but the breath of life to make them real, are found in Rome and Italy, and were first taught as such in Rome. Statues, that require but the pulsing blood to make them move, are found in Rome and there alone. Music-the 'Miserere,' that Gregorian chant that seems to earth the lingering, echoing strains from the angelic choir around the Throne above, is heard in the Sixtine Chapel in Rome, and there alone.

Architecture, that seems beyond the comprehension and ability of man, is found in Rome. Poetry was cradled there. Rome fostered the first physicians of any note. Our law books are filled with Justinian law. The orator must be Ciceronic to be perfect. How well and truly, then, did Macaulay, the greatest of historians, denominate the Catholic Church as the 'Mother of Sciences-the Foster Mother of Arts.' Our Catholic colleges and convents are acknowledged to be the best and most successful schools in the land, and yet they are the most defamed, the most bitterly opposed by all other denominations and their ministers. But in spite of all this opposition, and their strenuous efforts to put them down, still they outnumber, still they succeed and prosper, much to the chagrin and disappointment of those who would rejoice to see them fail. And here I must say that within my experience in life, I have never known of a Catholic college or convent, or even day school, once established, that ever failed.

Take the South throughout during the trying times of her late civil war; take all her cities that had Catholic schools before the war, and show me the school existing then that is not existing now, and that did not, in almost every instance, continue during the war, and in most of them, as here in Shreveport, you will find many of the same teachers, in the same garb, and performing the same routine of arduous duties as you might have seen them ten, fifteen or twenty years ago--no poorer, for they could not be; no richer, for they would not be. Why is it, then, that in the face of all this opposition met with, our Catholic schools succeed so well, when others fail and pass away? I will answer the question. To me it is no mystery; to any understanding Catholic it is no problem difficult to solve. The reason is simply this: Our schools go hand in hand with our religion; wherever you find a Catholic Church, there, also, will you almost invariably find a Catholic school; our schools are but branches and parts of that whole, the Church, and the Divine Creator who established the Church, promised to be with her 'all days, even to the consummation of the world, and be therefore gave to that Church the power and wisdom, the elements and requirements necessary for the proper and successful management of all her parts. The religious organizations known as Orders or Communities in the Church, the lives of whose members are devoted solely to God, whose rules and regulations are based upon their religion and its principles, constitute the main element requisite for the successful management of that branch of the Church, her schools.

Now, what are the traits and characteristics of that element, which renders it so eminently fit for its occupation, and so indisputably successful in the attainment of its object and aims? Observe their lives, read their rules, understand their religion, and you will at once know and see the secret of their success.

First, the Church teaches us that we are not created for this life alone, but for another and a better; that each one of us has a vocation; that God fits every man and every woman for a certain station and calling in life, and grants them the graces and wisdom requisite for the proper filling of that vocation. The members of these communities have satisfied themselves they have a religious calling-that of devoting themselves to teaching and works of charity for the honor and glory of God.

The Church, in wisely regulating and protecting these communities, affords her children the means of most perfectly filling those religious vocations. Their rules and regulations are rigidly virtuous, temperate, self-abnegating. They make vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; vows from the heart; conscientious vows, not to man, or to each other, but before the altar, and in presence of each other, and to God they utter aloud their sacred, solemn vows; laying aside the world, even to their names and clothing, and assuming those the Church confers. Hence, you see, their object is not riches; individually, they do not work for money; they have no salaries; they receive no pay; they have made their vows of poverty, and wish for none. They do not work for worldly fame or glory, for the world does not even know them;

The world they have forgot
Have cast aside their garb and name:
Who they are or whence they came
The world knows not.

Their retired life, their rigid rules, their temperate habits, must satisfy you that they seek no pleasures. Hence, you see, that their lives are spent solely in teaching and works of mercy; not from any worldly or mercenary motive; not from any hope of reward or gain in this life, but with the sole object, the pure purpose, of faithfully fulfilling their vocation, thereby contributing to the honor and glory of God,

knowing that from Him they will obtain their reward an hundred-fold in the life to come.

These, then, are the secrets of their success. Their motives pure, unselfish, unmercenary; their object elevated, unworldly, disinterested; their labors untiring, undivided: their lives pure, temperate, religious, and wholly and solely devoted to their labors, and their labors blessed by God.

While speaking of these religious communities pardon me, my friends, if I divert for a moment from my subject; but the fact I wish to mention is so striking & one I cannot pass it by. What other Church than the Catholic can present such beautiful, such regulated and effective organizations as these? Take the cities of the world, examine their charitable institutions, and see under whose management they are. According to the statistics of 1870 there are in America to-day, 136 public orphan asylums, 60 public hospitals, and 59 other benevolent and charitable institutions, such as homes for the aged, etc., all under the control and management of, and most of them supported by these communities of the Catholic Church; their doors open to all sects and all nations. Besides these, there are schools, colleges and convents by the hundred.

But, my dear friends, besides the widow and the orphan, the aged and the infirm, the sick, the blind and the decrepit, there is another class in our community abroad requiring attention, I mean the Magdalenes of society, upon whose sins charity imposes an impenetrable veil. The Catholic Church does not forget even these. She, and she alone, provides even these with a shelter and a home. Go to the large cities of the United States--aye, of the world-- and in all of them you will find houses, known as the 'Houses of the Good Shepherd,' conducted by just such kind, devoted sisters as these, where you will see hundreds of those poor unfortunates, unknown and unobtrusive, leading quiet, retired and industrious lives, cared for and contented.

What Church does, or can do all this but the Catholic? And yet, with all her works and charities, what Church is so reviled, so persecuted as she? What people are so maligned, so slandered and opposed, as are these same good sisters? Is it not a striking fact!

But to return to my subject. The lives of these sisters, and the rules and principles by which they are governed, render them eminently fit for their calling; and to my mind, the life and aim of those who educate the daughters of our land cannot be too pure, too elevated, too holy. For the influence of woman's position in life is too great, too important, to admit of entrusting her early education and training, which so moulds and shapes, and tinges her mind and character for her life time, to any other than those whose own lives, character and actions prove them capable and worthy of so important an undertaking.

I might spend hours in expatiating on the influences of woman in life, in picturing to you her sweet and happy sway in the home circle. I might tell you of her widespread influences for good or evil in society. I might give you innumerable instances of her telling influence, if not directly, at least indirectly, through her husband, brothers and sons, upon the commerce and politics of our country. We daily read of her baneful influence in the lobby halls of Washington. I might tell you from the lives of the Saints all she has done for the Church! I could tell you by the hour of the holy influence flowing forth from the Convent walls, and living for ever! I could cite you to incidents, and speeches, and writings tending to prove that Eugenie is responsible for the terrible destinies of France. I might quote history by the page, to show you that Roman mothers made Roman senators and warriors, and made them proud that they were Romans.

That, were there no Cleopatra, Anthony would have wielded a different destiny. The Spartan mothers gave to history to record the deeds of Spartan braves. I might tell you from the Bible that a woman's influence dyed the hands of Herod in the blood of the Baptist! That, were there no Pharaoh's daughter, there were no Moses; no Eve, there were no sin; no Mary there were no Messiah! If woman's influence, then, over the deeds and destinies of men and nations, has ever been so powerful, so great, what must be the importance of her education upon which that influence so much depends!

How can we measure it? It can be counterbalanced only with the influence she wields. And how can we comprehend or measure that? By its magnitude, its extent. And what is that? World-Wide, life-long! But does it end here? If man, as we are taught to believe, carries with him, into the next life, the records of his deeds done in this, then woman's influence follows him there-and its effect is eternal! Therefore, too, do I assert that the religious education of the heart and mind is paramount, as the Catholic Church teaches, to their literary training, because the one is for the world-finite and temporal; the other for heaven, infinite and eternal!

Now, young ladies and my loved little friends, I must ask to say a few words to you, and I will close. These are the happiest days of your life; you do not believe it or appreciate it, and I see some of you smile, as if you would like to call me a 'story,' but I repeat to you, they are the happiest, because the freest from responsibility, clouds and care. In after days, you will often wish yourselves back at the St. Vincent's Academy. You are now about to bid a temporary adieu to your teachers and books, to spend a few weeks of vacation with those loved at home; this is only the better to prepare you for your studies during the next session, for your minds need relaxation after the past year's application; but during your vacation do not forget what you have learned, nor forget the good advice and examples of these kind Sisters here, who have taught and watched over you with such maternal care.

Remember, too, what I have said to you about the importance of your education, and the influence of woman in the world. These ladies you see here around you, were once school girls as you are, and thought as little about the cares and responsibilities of their future, as you do now of yours; nevertheless these cares and responsibilities came to them, and will also come to you. Therefore, prepare and educate yourselves well, so that you may be fit for any position you may be called upon to fill in after life. God may call some of you to the cloister--to lives such as these good Sisters lead, who can tell? But you all will be

Scattered like roses in bloom-
Some at the bridal some at the tomb.

but whenever it be, be prepared; if at the tomb, be ready for it. If at the altar, be prepared to become the good and worthy wives of good and worthy men!

And now, dear Mother and Sisters, I cannot close without thanking you for the compliment and honor conferred, by inviting me to deliver the closing address of your Session. It is the first of the kind I have ever been called upon to deliver. It is not so difficult to address a jury or court, with the facts and law to argue from; but to deliver an address of this nature taking subjects and themes entirely in the abstract, to do it well and appropriately, and at the same time do justice to such an audience, and such an Institution, is not an easy task, and therefore I crave your indulgence for its shortcomings. And in conclusion, dear Mother and Sisters, allow me to congratulate you on the success and improvement of your Institution. I need not tell you that I have always felt, and still feel, and will never cease to feel a deep interest in the success and prosperity of St. Vincent's Academy; not only an interest but a pride; not alone as a Catholic, but as your particular friend and adviser in the purchase of this property, and the establishment of this school. Your good beginning has been made, and it has been said that a 'good beginning is half the race.' You, too, have had your cares and sorrows. Death, who 'loves a shining mark,' has taken from you your saintly Superior, Mother Teresa: God has called her from her labors to her reward; she has not forgotten you, but is waiting and praying for you above. 'He, to whose love and glory your lives are devoted, has said, that where 'two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them.' Therefore I say to you be of good heart; clouds may lower and lightning flash, but He who 'walks upon the waters,' rides the storms, and can bid them, 'Peace, be still!'