Manhattanville College - Tower Yearbook (Purchase, NY)

Page 12 text:

IN MEMORIAM The Most Reverend John J. Dunn While we were away from the College for our summer vacation, we were grieved to learn of the death, on August third, 1933, of The Most Reverend John J. Dunn, Auxiliary Bishop of New York. As pastor of the Church of The Annunciation, which adjoins Manhattanville, and as a friend of the College, his loss is irreparable. The Missionary Association of Manhattanville has special reason to regret his death and revere his memory. Bishop Dunn was Chairman of the Directors of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and for thirty years an inspiring leader in all missionary activities in the diocese. Wherever Catholic priests or nuns are working to bring souls to Christ in the pagan lands of the earth, there Bishop Dunn ' s name is held in veneration; for during the past thirty years millions of dollars have, through his efforts, been collected in the Archdiocese of New York and through the country for the relief and support of Catholic Foreign Missions. Bishop Dunn founded the Catholic Students ' Foreign Mission League, whose object it is to foster a missionary spirit in our Catholic schools and colleges. Manhattanville, all of whose students are members of this league, will never cease to revere the memory of Bishop Dunn. [8]

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IN MEMORIAM Reverend Mother Mary Moran, R.S.C.J. Manhattanville was inexpressibly saddened by the news of the death of Reverend Mother Mary Moran, at Kenwood, February 25, 1934. Reverend Mother Moran founded in 1917 the College to which she has been always united by the bonds of interest and love. Reverend Mother Moran was born in Ireland in 1851, was educated in France, entered the Society of the Sacred Heart in England at Roehampton, and returned to France in 1881 to make her profession. Later she founded the Training College at St. Charles, London, and was its first principal. From England she went to Montreal and was in charge of all the Convents of the Sacred Heart in Canada, until 1908 when she came to Manhattanville as Vicar of the Eastern Vicariate. She busied herself with the constant improvement and beautifying of the Manhattanville grounds and buildings. In 1914, she had the Joy of preparing fhe meeting of all the Superiors of North America for the retreat with Reverend Mother Janet Stuart, the Superior General of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1916, His Eminence, Cardinal Farley asked her to found a college here; and in 1917 a provisional charter was granted, which was made permanent in 1919. Reverend Mother Moran was the first President of the College, and it was under her wise guidance that its spirit and traditions took their mold. Always whole-heartedly devoted to the Church and the Vicar of Christ, Reverend Mother Moran did not hesitate to dare the unknown. Her foundation of the Pius X School of Liturgical Music in answer to the Holy Father ' s Motu Proprio is a lasting testimony of this. Reverend Mother Moran was present at both the Beatification and the Canonization of Saint Madeleine Sophie; and her last visit to the Holy City was in 1928 for a general council of the Society of the Sacred Heart. Three years later she celebrated her Golden Jubilee, shortly after which Reverend Mother Moran suffered a complete breakdown. She remained in ill-health until her death in I 934. No less remarkable than her work for Manhattanville were her accomplishments for the whole Eastern Vicariate. After 1918, she was no longer at Manhattanville; but she never failed to work for its welfare, including it in the wide field of her activities over all the convents. Reverend Mother Moran founded the Academies of the Sacred Heart at Washington, D. C., and Noroton, Connecticut, and transferred those of Philadelphia, Detroit and Boston to better locations. Her interest in and zeal for the college and the academies were undiminished to the end of her intensely active life, and her action is so bound up with the early days of the college that it is impossible to separate the thought of Manhattanville from that of its founder. Her memory, her influence, her ideals are alive in the college. [7]

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IN MEMORIAM The Right Reverend Monsignor William J. Guinan The Right Reverend Monsignor William J. Guinan died on May twenty-seventh, 1933. He was a trustee of the College, one of the originators of the New York Apostolate Mission Band, and for seventeen years rector of the Church of The Blessed Sacrament. In Monsignor Guinan we lose an eloquent preacher, a fruitful missionary, an efficient administrator, and a learned and devout priest. To him Christ was a great and living reality. He saw Him in every man, and this faith and vision became the foundation of his boundless charity. His capacity for friendship impressed itself upon all those with whom he came into contact, and this fact is witnessed by the large number of friends whom he left behind him. Manhattanville knew him well, not only in his position as an efficient trustee but also as an invaluable friend. He continually practiced the virtue of prayerfulness and he himself gave a devoted example in his preachings. Perhaps the best summing-up of his character is given by the Reverend Michael A. Riley, who, in the funeral address for this distinguished prelate, said: Monsignor Guinan will continue to live in our affections; he will live in his work, in the hearts of the children he educated, and above all he will live in the hearts of the Master Whom he always strove to love and serve. IN MEMORIAM Mother Edith Olive Edmands, R.S.C.J., Ph.D. On November twenty-ninth, 1933, the college was informed of the death of Mother Edith Edmands at Kenwood. This sad news meant a real loss to Manhattanville; for Mother Edmands was not only known but well-loved by all who had come in contact with her during her years at the college. She was born in Littleton, New Hampshire, in 1880, and educated at the Tilton Seminary, N. H., and Boston University. At both these institutions she was remark¬ able for her brilliance of intellect and for her beauty of character. Later, while working in a publisher ' s office, she made the acquaintance of a Catholic friend. She read the Fathers of the Church and had a particular interest in St. Augustine. Father Gillis ' talks and sermons, and daily attendance at Mass finally led her into the Church. She was baptized in 1911. The next year she entered the Society of the Sacred Heart at Kenwood, and made her vows in 1914. She was sent to Boston, where she taught for two years. At the end of that time, she was transferred to Manhattanville, where she remained, with the exception of six months in Rome in 1920, until 1930, as head of the department of Latin and Greek. Her health broke down in 1930, and she was sent to Kenwood in the hope that she would grow better. After an apparent recovery, she came back to Manhattanville, but she suffered a relapse and was obliged to return to Kenwood, where she died on November twenty- ninth, to the sorrow of her many friends. At Manhattanville, Mother Edmands was loved and admired for her straight¬ forward manner and ready wit. She was a special foe of sham or unreality in any form. Witty without being sarcastic, the impersonal way in which she could point out flaws or errors never left a sting. Her love of, and interest in the classics was infectious; and so great was her enthusiasm that a lesson in Latin syntax took on something of the nature of an adventure. Mother Edmands founded the Classical Club and started it on its distinguished career. An interesting sidelight on her love of the classics, was her collection of elephants—which her successive classes assembled as a memento of Livy and Hannibal. Mother Edmands was the author of our well-loved In Exultatione Metens which is sung at every commencement. She was faculty adviser of the TOWER and the ESSAY for some years. But with all her duties, she always had time for friendly conversation with any of the students. The girls who knew her, remember her best for her understanding and sympathy, which, out of class hours, was given equally to the just and the unjust. Mother Edmands ' death is a loss to Manhattanville which can hardly be measured. [9]