CURÉ DE NAINT-PHILIPPE DE BOSTON
« Most Reverend, Right Reverend and Reverend Brethren of the Clergy, Mr. President and Brother Alumni,
« One hundred years in hüman history, is a shorttime to look back upon, and yet it contains the efforts and consequent success or failure of more than four generations, hence it has béen the custom to celebrate centennial anniversaries in national and church affairs, such events being looked upon as so many milestones in the evolution of history.
«We are celebrating to-day the one hundreth anniversary of the foundation of this noble institution of learning. Protectors, professors, alumni and friends, old students and new, we are all gathered together to-day in these hallowed walls to honor our Alma Mater, to laud her with heartfelt words of praise for the glory that
she has brought to herself and to us her children, to Crown her with her own golden works s0 nobly done in these 100 years of her history, — Laus, Honor et Gloria! — to lay at her feet our noblest hopes, deepest aspirations and most fervent prayers for her future, and to place deep down in her heart, all our filial love and gratitude for all that she has been to us, for all that she is to us, for all that she has done for us, and all that she js doing for us, and we say to her in the beginning of this new century: /ntende, Prospera, Procede et Regna !
«T have listened with pleasure to the glowing words of praise bestowed by the previous speakers upon Nicolet
‘for its work, influence and results in Canada, and would that I had their eloquence to adequately portray the influence of Nicolet on Catholic life, in many of the states of our great republic.
«Noble sons of Nicolet have gone out from its hallowed walls to evangelize as priests, to influence for good as learned laymen. à
«We owe much to Canada for the preservation of the faith mongst the early Catholic immigrants to the United-£ tes, much for that great spread of the church's influence amongst all the nationalities that make up the co-called American race. : |
«In the early days, Catholic colleges were few, Catholics priests not numerous and the Catholic immigrant to the United States wishing to give his children Catholic education, found in the colleges and corrvents of your hospitable Country, a place where his children might be thaught and ex'ucated, and at the same time hâve their religion preserved to them. Among those colleges none has had a greater share in sending priests to the United States, in educating a goodly number of Catholic laymen, and thereby spreading the knowledge
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of Christ and His Church, and the influence of that Church, than this Seminary, which we love to call our own. Even in our own time and generation, when colleges became numerous in the States, many of our parents still chose to send their sons here, where they might be well grounded in the sciences, and above all,
in religion, and we who are the alumni of Nicolet, thank God that they did so.
«This college gave us the foundation of all that we are and all that we have. She opéned up to us all the ways of learning, and solidly planted in our souls and minds, by her teaching and by the eminent example of zealous, pious and holy professors, that faith and love for Holy Church which marks in an eminent degree the life of every faithful son of Nicolet.
« On every page of the history of Lower Canada, for these 100 years, may be found the name of some son of Nicolet who has done honar to his country by some noble act of patriotism or religion, and 1 may be pardonned if 1 say, that from the beginning of the influx of american students into this sanctuary of learning and piety, they too have tried to emulate the example of their canadian confrères by their zeal in the cause of country and religion, and have always striven to bring greater honor to the home of their mother.
«Many have gone to their reward, but the names of such as the eloquent Barry, and the gifted and talented Howard, and many others whom 1 might mention, will long be remembered in New-England as men who added lustre to the glory of the church in that region.
«Among the living, there are many occupying most prominent positions in clerical and lay circles. The name of F. Murphy, of Chicago, is synonymous with
learning, zeal and hospitality, both East and West. D. Stafford, called the most eloquent of the priests of the United-States, has the most important parish south of the Mason and Dixon Line.
« Among those who hold the most honorable clerical positions and most important parishes in the New- England States, may generally be found the names of men who owe to Nicolet the education and the virtues requisite to fill those positions, such as our learned secretary, Fr. Colbert, Frs Lee Delany and a host ofothers. One there is in the diocese to which L have the honor to belong, who is held by many Jo be worthy, because of his modesty, his piety, his ability and learning, to preside over the metropolitan see of that great city in which be was born, that faithful son of Nicolet, Thomas Cusack.
«It is not well to praise the living, and yet it is but to praise our Alma Mater that we speak in this manner of her sons, and when we stand here on this ground so dear to us, and when we look around on this home of our happiest years, a flood of memories come rushing over us, faces long since forgotten return, and if we do so love to think of those other days, and to praise the happiness of those days, and those who made them happy, why may we not be pardoned if we fzel like praising those who have ever and always been with us ? The memory of those days bring back s0 many; they bring back the memory of that man who was first to greet me, over thirty years ago, as for the first time I came to this college, the gentle, pious, big hearted, and well beloved Joseph Blais, that man among men who
drew every heart to him, who could draw order out of chaos, who did so impress himself upon the men of his time that they prayed :God they might be like him in
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