Savannah Morning News

END OF AN EVENTFUL LIFE.

Death of Remarkable Patriot, Priest, Musician and Monk.

LOUISVILLE, KY., Nov. 7.—At Gethsemane abbey in Nelson county, Ky., this afternoon, there died a man whose history has in it more romance than is ordinarily contained in the lives of ordinary mortals.

Father Joseph was the single title of the good man in the church, and by this appellation and no other was he known by his silent and holy companions. Seventy-eight years ago Cordia Collier was born in France. His was a quiet life, and had it not been for the great revolution in 1848 he might never have been heard of by the world. But the great free thought movement which accompanied the revolution seized him and he was affected as Liszt and Wagner were affected. He became a leader. Possessed of great mind, he wrote poems and stirring music for the people. Finally the change came. He, with a thousand others, were expelled from France.

Arriving in New York, he became a devout Catholic, and finally accepted orders and joined the priesthood. All went well for a time, but the holy father pined away for the world. At last he married and was expelled from the priesthood for violating his vows of celibacy. His wife died, leaving a little daughter. On her death bed she asked that her child be dedicated to the church, and with this object in view the father placed it in a convent near Newport, Ky., and the child finally became a nun.

M. Collier then went to New Orleans, where his musical taste led him to compose a number of arias. Finally he became a member of the French Opera Company, where he remained for four or five seasons. He visited his daughter often and took special interest in her religious training. Finally he seemed to grow weary of the world, and looked for a place to pass the rest of his days. The Trappist abbey at Gethsemane received him and here Father Joseph spent the declining years of his life, buried from the world, his name forgotten, his very existence unremembered.