St Josephs Academy - La Lumiere Yearbook (Prescott, AZ)

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LA LUMIERE RIGHT REVEREND MONSIGNOR GERARD February 2nd, 1927. “Time has had power to wither him and bozv And set a claimant seal upon his brow, But daily at the altar when he stands And knows his God to lie within his hands He feels again within his breast the glow Of fires that on a morning long ago Swept him to rapture. Though upon his head The garnered glories of his years are shed, Time has no more dominion over him He shares the bright youth of the seraphim.” For the first time in Arizona's history a Golden Sacerdotal Jubilee was celebrated today, when the Diocese of Arizona, and especially the Catholics of Prescott, most fittingly observed the fiftieth anniversary of the ordination of the Reverend Edward Gerard. The fact that Father Gerard was ordained fifty years ago today in Tucson, Arizona, and spent the half-hundred years of his priestly missionary career in this State, made the occasion so much more memorable. The comprehensive program for the festivity, arranged by Father Felician Payas, C.M.F., pastor of Sacred Heart Church, and Father Paul Neil P rennan, of Whipple Barracks, was splendidly carried out. Father Gerard was born at Bruz, near Rennes, little Brittany, France, on July 19th, 1852. He made his first studies for the priesthood in the Eudist College at Rennes and his superior studies in the Diocesan Seminary of the. same city. He was ordained Sub-Deacon in June, 1876, by the Cardinal of Rennes, and in September of the same year came to Arizona at the request of the then Bishop of the Arizona Territory, Rt. Rev. J. B. Salpointe. Bishop Salpointe ordained him Deacon on Christmas, 1876, and Priest on February 2nd, 1877. In July of the same year Father Gerard was sent to Florence, Arizona, as assistant priest under Father A. Echallier and soon afterward replaced him as pastor. During his administration at Florence, he attended the then small towns of Tempe, Phoenix and Globe, where there was no resident priest. He built the first Catholic Churches in Phoenix and Tempe. He started in the old Church of Florence a parochial school and built a new and substantial Church. In 1885 he was sent to Silver City, New Mexico, to replace Father Bourgarde, who had been appointed Bishop of the Diocese. He remained there for four years. In 1889 Father Gerard was sent to Tucson, Arizona, with the appoint- ment of Vicar General of the Diocese and Rector of the Cathedral, and he served in that capacity ten years under Bishop Bourgarde and ten years more under Bishop Granjon. In 1909, on account of failing health, he retired to Silver City, New Mexico, as Chaplain of the Sisters Hospital and Academy until 1914, when he came to Prescott in the same capacity. Page Four

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LA L U MIER E St. Joseph's Academy— Uieu? From Deranda 7$- Page Six