Boston College - Sub Turri Yearbook (Boston, MA)

Page 19 text:

Most Reverend Richard J. Gushing, Archbishop of Boston

Page 18 text:

In the life of the universal Church one hundred and fifty years is young for a diocese. The great dioceses of Rome and Paris in the Old World and Lima in the New were heavy with age long before the year 1808 when the See of Boston was founded. Age and greatness are not necessarily synonymous, either in the case of an individual man or a human institution. Greatness is not someth ing that is passively accumulated; it must be actively merited. The source of a diocese ' s greatness is the imagination and Christ-like leadership of her bishops and the faith and vigor of her people. In both, the Diocese of Boston has been blessed abundantly. Just as the external in- fallibly reflects the internal animating spirit, so too, the externals of a diocese — its churches, schools, hospitals, and homes for the aged and the orphaned — all typify a faith and leadership that has been wise and strong these one hundred and fifty years. To commemorate the founding of the Diocese of Boston a century and a half ago. We the Class of 1958 dedicate this forty sixth edition of SUB TURRI to the bishops, priests and people — past and present — of the See of Boston.

Page 20 text:

Bishop John Cheverus I gratefully accept the dedication of this edition of SUB TURRI from the Class of 1958. It features the pictures of t s Sr I ii ho, by the grace of God and the favor of the Holy See, have serveS JJieJ 6eesg ' | f Bpsiton during the past one hundred and fifty years. f ' %J t: Mt The founder of this spidtufir3ynasty, ' the firsnBishop pf the Diocese of Boston, was Bishop John Cheveri , 1 ' 808-1823. New Englanders o| his day had heard much that was unfavorable to the e fecopacy of the Catholic Church. One can readily appre- ciate, therefore, what a tremendous iin|jression was made on them by this Bishop, who lived in one room with so little furniture tliat vi.sitors often sat on his bed; who had the minimum of food and clothes; who split his own firewood; who could be found visiting the poor, the sick and the sinner at all hours of the day and night; who often tramped afar to visit a dying man; and who periodically travelled all over New England to find and feed the lost sheep of his flock. Bostonians of a century and more ago. and their descendants, loved to recall this familiar figure — in shabby bl ck coat, with knecrbreeches, stockings and buckled shoes of the older generation — trudging tirelessly through the streets, while children ran after him, delighted to receive a smile and a kind word from one whose personal presence was like a benediction and whose face seemed visibly aglow with the light that springs from some unearthly source. Bishop Benedict JosEPH SiE 2 y846, succeeded the picturesque Cheverus. President of Georgeto rL,Collei«-a53j cioiLJM one of the old Catholic families of Maryland, he was virile, energetic, good-natured, ahriost the opposite of the delicate Cheverus. His physique wa« ' that of a giant; his mind, tliat a master. He was one of the ablest of all the early Bishojis, certainly one of tiie most s|irely tried and one of the finest characters in the history of the Church of the Lhiite iStates. Under his dynamic leadership parishes, schools a rl charitable works mufimed over all New England in the face of militant and brutal ppositioii. IbiU Cross Kollege, Worcester, and THE JESUIT or CATHOLIC SENTINAL. the precursor of TOE PILOT, were founded by him. He presided over the Church in New Liiglaiul dumig the years of her greatest persecution. The Ursuline Con eul was burned, churches were threatened, riots fo- mented, the darkest days in the histtirii of religion in lliis area were trying the souls of men of good will. Pursuing a calm, patient, charitable course the great heart of Fenwick was eventually broken. He jji y jrivfully reoover d. Bishop Blmdui Joseph Fenwick Coming after the death of 1866, his co-ad jutor, a man of tie ffl ie,j su: of Boston. His father was n r lrant w ' jsh taif professor and cultured, uAarfff gentlemteJ 51L 3 as and handsome. Brilliant, sairitlv. a great cfji ' ta strength by extensive work during llie fir t half m second half he was, to a great-cxlent. inactive. He dier His era coincided with th|e, flnod-tide of inunigralii of the Church. New parishesy ere estalilislird. reli institutions multiplied, the fe College was founded. James B. Fitzpatrick, 1846- ffice of Bishop of the Diocese mself, a scholar, brilliant i «smc presence, tall, dignified sars to have over-taxed his ipiscopacy so that during the a comparatively young age. iind with the resulting growth mmunities and charitable Inbuilt and, in 1863, Boston Bishop James B. Fitzpatrick