Loyola College - Review Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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LOYOLA COLLEGE REVIEW 3I and familiar intercourse with so many of the marvels of creation, and his constant efforts to penetrate a few of Nature's secrets, made him realize how little even the most learned knew about God and His works. Notwithstanding his years of study, he was profoundly con- vinced that he had hardly touched the fringe of things, and he waited patiently for the day when he would see the Author of all, face to face, and learn from Him the mysteries of the Universe. He died peacefully, June 5, 1920, fortified by the rites of the Church. He was buried in the little cemetery of the Order at Sault au Recollet, the cradle of his life as a Jesuit. — Е. J.D. Rev. Alexander Gagnieur, SJ LEXANDER GAGNIEUR--not Gagnier, as his name is incorrectly spelled in Morgan's Canadian Men and Women of the Time (1912) and in The Catholic Who's Who and Year-Book 1921—was born in Toronto on the 22nd of January, 1863. His father, Antcine Gagnieur, was a native of France and a skilled musician. His mother. Elizabeth Allan, was born in Scotland and married in Canada. Her most important liter- ary work is Conflict and Triumph, a dramatic poem of more than three hundred pages, which sketches in melodious, thought-laden verse the history and teaching of the Catholic Church. It was published several years after her death by the Canadian Messenger Press, Montreal, 1908, a handsome volume for a gift to learned friends. The two sons of this devout Catholic couple entered the Society of Jesus. William, the elder, born in May, 1857, became a novice in 1873, has been for more than thirty years, a nd still is one of the most learned and zealous missionaries among the Indians of Lake Super- ior and Lake Huron. Alexander, the younger son, took more time to discover his religious vocation. After enjoying the atmosphere of a cultured home and gcing through the usual High School course, he devoted his youthful activity to commercial pursuits, in which he acquired that business tact and financial flair which were later on to make him a successful administrator of parish and college funds. When he was half way through his twenty- fifth year he felt and answered the Divine call to a higher life, entering the Sault-au-Récollet novitiate on the 30th ої July, 1887. After the two years of noviceship he had two additional years of juniorate to perfect his arts course. From 1891 to 1893 he taught Latin rudiments in St. Mary's College, Montreal. From 1893 to 1895 he studied philosophy in the scholas- ticate of the Immaculate Conception, in this city. Then he taught the classics for a year at St. Mary's College and for two years at the then newly organized Loyola College in Drum- mond Street. In 1898 he went back to the . Immaculate Conception for his theological course and was ordained priest.on the 30th of June, 1901. | From 1901 {о 1903 he taught опе of the higher classes at Loyola College, and then spent his year of tertianship at Mold in Wales. On his return from Great Britain in 1904, he was appointed Pastor of the Jesuit Church at Sault St. Marie, Michigan, a post which he held with marked success for three years. His pleasing address, mellow voice and fluency in the pulpit, coupled with his quietly shrewd business talent, won the esteem and trust of his parishioners. These precious gifts pointed him out as a not too unworthy successor to the illustrious

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30 | LOYOLA COLLEGE REVIEW ments which, with only the most primitive materials at hand, he succeeded in making. Father Kavanagh's taste for physics and chemistry revealed itself from his earliest years. Even while a student at St. Mary's College (1870-77), he spent the most of his time dur- ing school hours in the laboratory, and it was evident that, after he became a Jesuit, his preference for these sciences would be respect- ed and that time would be allowed him for their ample development. At the close of his course in St. Mary's, in 1877, heentered the Order at Sault au Recollet and, in 1879, was sent to England to continue his higher studies. Two years in London ге- viewing his classics, three years at Stonyhurst studying philosophy, and one year in research work in Victoria University, Manchester, com- pleted his training for the professor's chair, which he was to occupy for a quarter of a cen- tury in various Jesuit colleges in Canada. While ш England he had unusual oppor- tunities for widening his field of knowledge. Besides the ordinary course of mental and moral philosophy at Stonyhurst, he studied astronomy under Father Stephen Perry, S.J., R.A.S., who was looked upon as the greatest astronomer of his day in England and who was: twice chosen.by the British Government to head missions sent at its expense to observe transits of Venus and solar eclipses in different parts of the world. The young Jesuit showed such aptitude for.this attractive science, that he was chosen assistant to Father Walter Sid- greaves, Father Perry's successor in the Stony- hurst observatory, an institution which 15 credited with furnishing the longest and most complete record of magnetic observation. In Manchester, Father Kavanagh had the privi- lege of studying under Dr. Balfour Stewart and Sir Henry Roscoe. Under these two able professors he spent a whole year in physical and chemical research. While there his genius for practical experimental work soon brought him much favorable notice. He is credited in Roscoe's Manual of Chemistry with the devis- ing of an important experiment. Father Kavanagh returned to Canada in 1884 and began his long career as a teacher of science and mathematics, first in Quebec, then in Montreal, in the Jesuit House of higher studies on Rachel Street, where he spent several years, and where a number of ingenious instruments, the results of his own handiwork, are still preserved in the laboratory. He re- turned to England іп 1890 to complete his theology at St. Beuno's in North Wales. After another year given over to study in London, he came back to Canada and taught science for eight years in St. Mary's and in St. Boni- face. While in Manitoba, he was mathemat- ical examiner in the University. His relations with Loyola began with the beginnings of the college in 1896. He was one of the charter members at the incorporation and, while teaching in St. Mary's, he followed the progress of our institution and accom- panied it in its migration from St. Catherine Street to Drummond Street, thence to its pres- ent site on Sherbrooke Street West. Notwithstanding a busy life as professor, he found time for other functions. He read papers on botany before the Montreal Natural His- tory Society, while it occupied its old head- quarters on University Street, and received the congratulations of its veteran chairman, Sir William Dawson. His reputation as an expert with the telescope secured for him membership in the Royal Astronomical Soci- ety of Canada and, as a member of the council of that body, he was appointed by the Cana- dian Government in 1905 to accompany Pro- fessor King's solar expedition to Labrador. At various times he àcted as chaplain to the Royal Victoria Hospital; he filled a similar office at the Montreal Sailors’ Club, and for a short season was editor of The Canadian Messenger. During the summer holidays һе gave retreats to various religious communities. He took part, now and then, in parochial missions, and was always ready to aid the local clergy when his help was required. у Towards the end of his active career, he directed the English-speaking section of an organized body of Canadian pilgrims to Paray: le-Monial, while the late Father Pichon, di- rected the French-Canadian section, and His Lordship the Bishop of Victoria, B.C., took command of this joint-pilgrimage to the shrine of the then Blessed, now Saint, Margaret Mary. Father Kavanagh was engaged in these and similar works when the final warning came, but the heroic religious was not unprepared. While his eight years of painful inactivity was a strong test of his virtue, he accepted the will of God with complete resignation. His long

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32 LOYOLA COLLEGE REVIEW Father Gregory O'Bryan, first Rector of Loyola College, whose spirit of manly piety is still happily manifest in the student body. So he became, on the 10th of August, 1907, Rector of Loyola College, which he ruled with wise and fatherly skill for the six following years. In 1913 he was appointed Minister at St. Boni- face College, Manitoba, and in 1914 Vice- Rector. But his health had long been unequal to the strain and responsibility of superiorship. Even when he was only twenty-eight his lungs were becoming tubercular. It was by sheer care and buoyant energy that he managed to fulfil his arduous duties. In order to afford him a much needed rest he was transferred,in 1915, to the beautiful Church of Our Lady in Guelph, where he found means, as assistant to the able and devoted Rector, Father Doyle, to do a great deal of good among the people who flocked to him for advice and direction, as he was too weak to go about the parish. However, as the comparative rest of the . Guelph Rectory gradually produced a con- siderable improvement, and as he was once more needed at Loyola, in June, 1917, Father Alexander Gagnieur was again appointed to the rectorship of this college, which had been transferred by Father MacMahon from the cramped quarters of Drummond Street to the new building with its fifty acres at the western extremity of Sherbrooke Street. | But there soon occurred a final break-down. In 1918 he had to spend several months in the sanatorium for tuberculosis at Gabriels, N.Y., in the Adirondacks, where the scientific treat- ment of the physicians in charge and the de- voted ministrations of the Sisters of Mercy succeeded in adding three more years to his truly apostolic life. These years he spent in Guelph, and they were the most edifying of all. His patience and cheerfulness in spite of a con- stant, hacking cough, were positively marvel- lous. Regret at giving so much trouble, grati- tude for the care his brethren took of him, were the salient features of his last days. They brought out unsuspected depths of virtue. After receiving the last sacraments with great fervor, he almost literally died upon his feet, having risen to greet a friend with his ever kindly smile. The end came on February 12th, 1921. R.I.P. Fr. Kavanagh (Labrador Eclipse Expedition).