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Show DEATH OF MONTANA'S BISHOP. ' Iess than three weeks ago Bishop Brondel preached a sermon at the religious festival at r Victoria, B. C. An account of that event, in honor of Archbishop Orth, was printed in this paper at the time. The next we heard of Bishop Brondel. he appeared at the funeral of his old friend, John Ca- j plice, at Butte, lie was seen no more in public. ! There is somethinsr nathetic surroundinc this j last incident in the life of the Montana j bishop. John Ca plice and Bi-hop Brondel had much in common. Both aided materi-j materi-j ally in the making of the commonwealth; j both were powers for good in the state; both were pioneers of' Montana; both led lives that were ex- amples and models fur the younger generation. It was fitting that two such souls should be united j in eternily. John Caplicc died Oct. IT. Bishop Brondel died Tuesday morning, Xov. 3. j It is in trifles that we oft times receive the true j j reflection of character. The Butte priest who rc-j rc-j calls the incident of the bishop blacking his shoes j is simple in itself, yet all availing to stamp that I jx-rson as one who is humble in his greatness, one j lo whom religion was not a sentiment but a reality. re-ality. Anything that was for good, for Christianity and for charity, had Bishop Brondel's hearty support sup-port and commendation, lie appreciated the Christian Chris-tian spirit in the religion of everybody, lie had no room for bigotry. To his countless non-Catholic friends he often expressed Ihe " sentiment that, whilst desiring Catholicity to embrace all mankind, man-kind, he had no quarrel with.. a believer in Christ who did good to his fellow men; it was the devil and his followers the bishop was after. Bishop Brondel, christened John Baptist Brondel, Bron-del, was' 1 1n? son of Charles Joseph Brondel, a chair manufacturer in Bruges. Belgium, and was born in that city, Feb. 23, 1S42. There were five sons and two daughters in ihe family and, with the exception of the future Bishop of Helena, all of the sons entered en-tered mercantile pursuits. Bishop Brondel received his first instructions from ihe Axvier Brothers, a community that had been established in his native cjty, and later took an extensive course at the College Col-lege of Saint Louis, in Bruges. On bavins determined deter-mined to devote himself to the Xorth American missions, he entered the American college at Lou-vain, Lou-vain, Belgium, .and devoted himself to philosophy and divinity. On Dec. 17, 1SG4, he was raised to the priesthood priest-hood at . Mechlin by Cardinal Sterch, and, having been received by the Tit. Rev. A. M. A. Bhinchet, of the diocese of Xesqually, Wash., he set out for his destination by way of Vancouver, arriving at Vancouver Van-couver Oct. 31. ISGo. For a number of years he united the duties of professor with those of missionary and for about ten years he was stationed at Steilacoom, in the Puget sound, whither he returned subsequently after aft-er a year's residence at Walla Walla. During his pastorate on the Puget sound he erected churches at Olympia and Tacoma. As a -missionary, a great deal of Father Brondel's Bron-del's time was spent among the Chinook Indians in Alaska and he became proficient in the Chinook language. His work among the Indians was particularly par-ticularly faithful. There were no hardships which he would not undergo for his flock and the members mem-bers who ..were brought out of the realms of worse than barbarism by his kind Christian teachings looked upon him as truly a messenger from the Christ. It was this work, to which the then Father Brondel devoted the best years of his life, that won for him the honors which came with his election to the bishopric. He was first elected Bishop of Vancouver Island, and received his consecration consecra-tion at the hands of Archbishop Seghera, Dec. 14, 1ST9. It was four years latc-yor on April 71SS3, that he was first commissioned to come into the then territory ter-ritory of Montana, he going there under the title of Administrator of Jlontana, which was then a part of the Xesqually diocese. The duties of his new office made it necessary that he should reside in Montana, and in August of that year, after having hav-ing visited the principal cities of the vicarate, he decided "upon Helena as his permanent residence. Immediately thereafter the. Jesuit fathers, who had maintained a mission here for many years previous, pre-vious, made over to Bishop Brondel their church and premises and whatever property was in their name on Catholic hill. While by this timely and most commendable arrangement on their part the fathers facilitated and hastened the erection of the new bishopric, they were thus also instrumental in Helena becoming the episcopal sec, and giving the name as well to the new diocese. This honor was conferred on Helena by Pope Loo XIII on March 7, 1SS4, the date of the erection erec-tion of the see, and the appointment of John B. Brondel as its first bishop. From that time on, the biography of Bishop Brondel is the history of Catholicism in Montana. During the time that Bishop Brondel has been a the head of the Catholic church in Montana he has been ever active, visiting each parish at least once a year and ofttimes twice. He has participated in the dedication of each of the Catholic churches and buildings erected by the state since his arrival here," and it is estimated that he had administered confirmation to not less than 10,000 people. ' Twice since his election to the bishopric has Bishop Brondel visited the Vatican, going in 1890 and again in 1S99. On both occasions he had lengthy audiences with Pope Leo, who was greatly interested in the message the bishop brought from the great west. . Pope Leo told Bishop Brondel that nothing was more dear to him than to hear the encouraging reports re-ports of the development of the far west and of the rapid strides Christianity was making in what but a few years previous had been an unsettled wilderness. The Pope was particularly affected when Bishop Brondel told him of the results of the work among the Indians, and on the occasion of Bishop Brondel's return he brought a message from the Vatican that appealed to every Catholic heart in 3Iontauu .-. , . . I |