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Show LAST OF fOPDERS Of THE PAULIST ORDER , - Rests in the Church He Established Great Results of the Life Work of father Deshon. ; -AH that was mortal of the Rev. Father George r Deshon was laid away -Saturday,! Jan. 2, in the crypt of the Church of St. John the ApostleXew York.' Archbishop' Farley officiated at the" requiem -mass, assisted by Vicars General Mooney and Edwards. Ed-wards. Father Lavelle preached the funeral sermon. ser-mon. -.'. Following biographical sketch of the lamented priest is from the pen of Rev. A. P. Doyle.' editor of .the Catholic World, and priest of the Paulist community. ... - . ; ' . . ; . ; The death of the Rev. George Deshon, superior , general ' of the Paulist Fathers, closes one of the ; most interesting chapters of church' history in the United States. He was the last of that famous body of men who constituted the charter members of the organization known as the Paulist Fathers. Fathers Ilecker, Hewit, Baker and Walworth, together to-gether with D(ihon, made up the quintet. They were all men of striking-personality and of remarkable re-markable individuality. ' Walworth, son of the Chancellor of Xew York State of that name, was a preacher of rare power. Baker was a most charming and lovable character, with a peculiar attractiveness and charm of manner that impressed every one he met; Xo one met him but to praise him; none knew him but to love him. Hewit' was a man of profound scholarship a student stu-dent and a theologian. Descended from old Cal-vinistic Cal-vinistic stock, he inherited many of its characteristics," character-istics," though his spirit was mellowed by a kindly heart. - , While Ilecker was' an idealist in the best sense of the word, he was a : truth-seeker and- original thinker. . Of German-Methodist origin, he started as . a reformer in the Workingman's party with Brownson, later on associating himself with Hawthorne Haw-thorne and Curtis and Ripley at Brook Farm, was known as 'Earnest the Seeker," he was a man of large ideas and broad views and of a truth-loving .temperament .that could not be satisfied with the chaff of .the. wild vagaries-ami Lalf-hearted attempts -at. social reform in the early half of the nineteenth century. He left them all behind and entered the ' Catholic Church, where he found complete satisfaction satisfac-tion in her fundamental philosophy and the best system of reform in her theology, DESHON, MAN AND PRIEST. The youngest of this group of men was Deshon, n nrantw-nl mnn nf affnirii lmrd-licndpd and Tvurlcnl.' of a mathematical and sentjmental turn of mind, a lover of austerity and frugality, and yet a profoundly pro-foundly religious spirit. All these men came by different roads to the. Catholic Church, and, without any previous arrangement, ar-rangement, found themselves thrown together in a religious community that offered to them the highest ideals of sanctified manhood, with the best opportunities for cultivating the higher life. When the old ship of Protestantism began to shown signs of unseaworthyness about the middle of the nineteenth century the best spirits left it and sought refuge at the bark of Peter. The Tractarian movement in England brought to the church such men as Xewman and Manning and Ward and a host of others. It had its effects in this country, and Baker and Hewit and Ives and Wad-hams Wad-hams and Walworth and many others were carried along by it into the Church. But outside of the Tractarian movement, there were other converts from the Evangelical bodies and even from Rationalism. Ration-alism. From the latter came Ilecker and Brown-son. Brown-son. However, the providence of God cast five of these earnest spirits into the Redemptorist community. com-munity. There they learned the principles of the religious life, and there they plighted their vows of obedience and poverty and chastity, and there they consecrated their energies to the uplifting of their fellow men, and in it all 'they, found the supreme su-preme joy of simple, chaste and holy Jiving. STOKY OF A GEEAT WOEK. Many years went by and their voices were heard in every corner of this country, from Quebec to Xew Orleans, denouncing vice and exhorting sin- ners to repentencc. In the hard work of the missions mis-sions they found there sweetest joy and : never a shadow of regret crossed their minds for the emoluments emo-luments and the honors they had' left behind. But conditions arose in their own household and by their own fireside, which made it imperative for them to go out once again. They were all Americans Ameri-cans and stout believers in the vocation of the American people, and they were earnestly anxious to bring the best people on the face of the earth, as they considered the American people to be, to a knowledge of the truth of the Catholic Church. A Teutonic spirit ruled among the Redemptionists at that time, and an effort was made to 'turn the work of these talented Americans into Gorman channels and thus, cut off iheir chosen field of activity. It was a vital question. The .usefulness of their lives was to a large extent wrapped up in it. The difference of judgment was appealed to Rome, and Rome bade Ilecker, Hewit, Walworth, Baker and Deshon to separate from the community they loved anel start afresh, so that they might continue on the lines of their chosen work. It was ail done in the best of spirit, and though those men went out from their chosen home and started anew, they went with the cordial good will of their brethren, and ever since the best of good feeling has existed between be-tween the Redemptionists and the Paulistfs. The Paulists began without a cent, but with stout hear-.s and a firm conviction thattheir eH-sen eH-sen lines were the best, and fifty years of labor has not demonstrated the contrary. ) The came to Xew York, and made beginning1 at Fifty-ninth street and Xinth avenue That was then far in the country. This was in Xovember 185S. For nearly fifty years they have! lived here! and their life has been an open book andl their1 work, has been known to all men. They'gathe-od disciples about"' them who became animated withjtheir spirit They continued to "carry on tho missjynarv work 1 in which they had been trained. Though dispensed from their vows as Rodcmptionists. they did not lower the ideals of ihe religious life tha c had been presented to them, nor did they a bat-, one bit of their earnestness in attaining tin- standards of perfection per-fection thnt they had learned. They .lid. however, modify their methods of work. They adopted means that would bring thfiu more in touch -with the bustling, active, everyday life about them. The Catholic World Magazine w.as started. The Catholic Cath-olic Book Exchange, a publication society after the manner of the Methodist Book Concern, was established. PEEACHING PEOJrl THE PEESS. With the profound conviction that they could preach from the printing press as well as they could from the pulpit, they started the printing plant, out from which have gone millions of pages ' , of literature, to do their good work of explaining and commending the doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church. An article in the American Ee-desiastical. Ee-desiastical. Review says that the activity of the Paulist Fathers in the fulfillment of their external vocation has ladiateJ chiefly in eight avenues of work to be: (1) Preaching of missions to th faithful; (2) the" splendor and exactness in1 carrying out the Church's ceremonial; (:!) in reforming church music mu-sic by going back to the old Georgian plain chut; (4) in opposition to intemperance and the liquor ' traffic; (5) in the elevation of sermonic standards and the encouragement of Catholic literature; (ii) the apostolate of the press represented by their printingn house, which during the past years sent ' out a million books, pamphlets, etc. ; (T) the preaching preach-ing of missions to non-Catholics; (S) the. formation of the Catholic Missionary Union and the building of the Apostolic Mission House for the training of secular priests' to be missionaries to non-Catholics. In all these many works Father Deshon, who ha just passed away, was a moving pirit. It is not, claimed in any sense that he originated all these I special movements, but under his broad, liberal and approving administration they have grown them- t selves." Father Deshon has been the practical man . of affairs. It was under his prudent management that the Paulist Fathers were enabled to build the great stone church that has become one of the land marks of the upper West Side. . It partakes not. a little of his own massive, rugged nature He 4 was a genuine, simple man, with little of the ornamentation or-namentation that sometimes constitutes with others a1 veneer to hide striking defects. He-was bom in-Xew London, eighty years ago. His family goes back to very early American ancestry. an-cestry. He was readed in Protestantism. In his early manhood he entered West. Point, and there vas graduated second in a class of which Grant ' was near the foot. His early associations with Grant had made them life-long friends. The military mili-tary training he received was so inbred into his system that he was ever after known as the "soldier "sol-dier priest," on account of his military bearing. For five years after graduation he was instructor of Ethics and Methematics. 1 was ai uns lime mat iuc religious question interested him. and after some years of thought and investigation he submited to the Church. In his priestly life as a missionary his forte was the didactic instructions, for he had little of the orator's or-ator's power of imagination. He was hard-headed and logical, and with a certain directness of manner man-ner that eschewed the graces of oratory. The severity sev-erity of his. mind led him to incline to asceticism, and his sermons, a .volume of which has recently ' been published, were led with the best ideas of both ascetical and mystical theology. He was an author of some distinction. During his missionary life he published a volume, vol-ume, "Guide for Young Women," which has run through thirty-two editions. I.ie probably had as much to do in shaping the activities of the Paulist as any other member, because of his hard-headed common sense view of affairs. Father Ilecker referred to him a great deal, while Father Hewit, who had no attrait for detail de-tail of cvory-day life, retired during the term of his superiorship to the quiet, solitudes of a scholarly life at the Catholic University and left the management man-agement to Father Deshon. He continued in charge of affairs to the day of his death. A WELL ROUNDED LIFE. He rounded out a long life of four score years of intense activity. He was rarely, if ever, sick and he died as he always desired, ''in the harness" and practically on his feet. He spent the last evening of his life correcting an old sermon. He retired at . the usual hour. Toward midnight, feeling that hia heart was giving out, he summoned an attendant. By a hurried call some of the fathers were gathered at his bedside, the last sacraments were administered adminis-tered and the end came quickly, though not suddenly. sud-denly. He-had a warning a week before that at any time his heart might stop and he wa3 prepared for the emergency. Life for him was a battlefield. The strictness and regularity.of his life savored a good deal of the military discipline of the barracks. Every morning ' of his life he was up and out at 5 o'clock, and was often the first at the common meditation at o:"0 in the chapel. He rarely, if ever, missed celebrating his daily mass at (5 o'clocke and at all the other ex-1 ex-1 ercises of his priestly life he was just as faithful. faith-ful. He is gone, but the great stone church is his monument, and quietly under its towers he is laid to rest. Their massive, simple grandeur will speak more eloquently than any epitaph of the rugged virtues and the sterling worth of George Deshon. |