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1994.THE CONSECRATION
OF NIAGARA TO PEACENIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO
PEACE
By FRANK H. SEVERANCE
Whoever traces the history of the Niagara region
through the centuries, cannot fail to be impressed with the
fact that its chief characteristic is warfare. Strife at arms,
strife in trade, bitter rivalry for the control of this water-
way which in early days was the key to wide navigation
beyond and the mastery of half the continent,—these were
the existing conditions and forces on the banks of the
Niagara down to a period which in the history of the
region, is recent.
Yet in these latter years Niagara Falls and vicinity have*
been the scene of world-famous peace conferences, and the
great cataract, one of the most turbulent places on earth,.,
has, by the impressive rites of the Roman Catholic Church,,
been consecrated to Peace.
The writings of many visitors at Niagara show that-the
great fall impresses itself upon their minds, not as an
exhibition of angry forces of nature, but as a soothing
influence. The descriptive symbolism applied to it is less
often that of force or might or terror, than of tranquility,
calmness, peace. This seeming paradox is well illustrated
by the words of Charles Dickens: “The first effect, and
the enduring one—instant and lasting—of the tremendous
spectacle, was Peace. Peace of mind, tranquility .	.	..
nothing of gloom or terror.” Countless others have ex-
9798
NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
pressed the same thing in varying phrase; and because the
two banks of the river are held by two nations, many a
writer has been moved by the turmoil of the waters to speak
of international peace. Thus Lord Morpeth, the Earl of
Carlisle, visiting Niagara in 1841, gave metrical expression
to a sentiment by no means unusual:
Oh! may the wars that madden in thy deeps
There spend their rage, nor climlb the encircling steeps,
And, till the conflict of thy surges cease,
The nations on thy bank repose in peace.
That the idea of peace, a psychological expression of
human sentiment, is inherent in natural conditions existing
at the Falls, might be more fully established by long argu-
ment and many citations. But the object of the present
notes is to record certain acts of the Catholic Church which
have given to this recognition of the peace sentiment at
Niagara the sanction of its authority, and incorporation
into its form of worship. It is by no means a negligible
chapter of our regional history.
On the high bank of the Niagara river, on the Canadian
side, overlooking the crest of the great fall and the rapids
above, there was built in 1837 a little Catholic church. The
corner-stone was laid on June 13th; the building when
completed was named after St. Edward ; and a priest who
later was the Very Rev. Edward Gordon, ministered at its
altar.1
At the beginning of the American Civil War the late
Archbishop Lynch of Toronto, “moved with sorrow at the
1. The statement has often been made, especially by newspaper corre-
spondents during the Peace Conference of 1914, that this church stands on
the spot where Father Hennepin first said Mass on the Niagara in December,
1678. Postcards and circulars on sale at the Carmelite Hospice make the same
claim. There is no authority for particularly associating Hennepin with this
spot, nor, for that matter, with the point on the American side below the falls,
called Hennepin’s View. He may or may not have been at either place. His
allusion to the first Mass on the Niagara is vague, but it appears to have been
held near the mouth of the river, after his return from a reconnaissance which
extended to Chippewa creek.NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
99
loss of many lives and the prospect of so many souls going
before God in judgment, some, it is to be feared, but ill
prepared, and at the sight of the beautiful rainbow that
spanned the cataract, the sign of peace between God and
the sinner, suggested prayers and religious exercises that
the war would1 soon end.” He then changed the name of
the little church above the cataract to “Our Lady of Peace.”
It was at his solicitation and on his representations that
the then reigning pontiff, Pope Pius IX., endowed the
church with the privileges of a pilgrim shrine, where may be
gained the indulgences attached to the most famous of old-
world shrines. The original Papal document, in Latin, is
preserved in the Diocesan Chancery office, in Toronto. It
is deemed so eminently a document of Niagara regional
history, that the publication here of the following transla-
tion is appropriate :
mu* ©♦ m TX.
For a Perpetual Remembrance.
Our Venerable Brother, John Joseph Lynch, the present Bishop
of Toronto, set forth to Us, that it is his wish to establish a Sacred
Pilgrimage at the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Peace,
situated near the Falls of Niagara, in- that Diocese. Wherefore he
earnestly besought Us graciously to open the heavenly treasures of
indulgences, by establishing for the faithful the above named Holy
Pilgrimage.
We, to increase the piety of the faithful and to save souls by
the heavenly treasures of the Church, favoring the prayers addressed
to Us, grant, through the Divine mercy, to all the faithful of both
sexes who are truly penitent' and have confessed their sins and
received Holy Communion, a plenary indulgence and remission of
all their sins, on whatever day in any year they may choose to per-
form the Holy Pilgrimage at that Church, and there pray piously
to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary, for the concord of Christian
Princes, the peace and triumph of Our Holy Mother the Church,
the extirpation of heresies, and the conversion of sinners.100 NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE. *
On whatsoever day the faithful shall perform the pilgrimage to
the aforesaid church, with contrite heart, and shall pray as above
prescribed, we grant an indulgence of seven years, and seven- times
forty days, from canonical or otherwise enjoining penance, in the
usual ecclesiastical form; all of which indulgences, absolutions of
sin, and remissions of canonical penance, We make applicable to
assist the souls who have departed this life in friendship with God.
Notwithstanding all past acts to the contrary, this is to avail for
all future time.
Given at St. Peter’s, Rome, Sealed with the Fisherman’s Ring,
March ist, 1861. in the 15th year of Our Pontificate.
Pius IX., Pont. Max.
J. Card. Antonelli.
The late Most Rev. John Joseph Lynch, D. D., Arch-
bishop of Toronto, to whom the historian must ascribe this
unique achievement, was a man whose activities and per-
sonality left a distinct impress upon the religious history of
Canada. Born near Clones in Ireland, in 1816, at the age
of sixteen he entered the college of the Carmelite Brothers
near Clondalphin. In 1841 he took the vows of that Order,
and in 1843 was ordained to the priesthood. In 1846 he
was sent as missionary to Texas. Sickness interrupted his
active work; he removed to New Orleans, and thence to
St. Louis. In 1849 we find him on a special mission to
Rome. It was in 1856, at the request of Bishop Timon of
Buffalo, that he founded and managed a house of his Order
at Niagara Falls, Canada, known as the Seminary of Our
Lady of Angels. Under his care, says a church record, it
flourished greatly. It was subsequently removed to Buffalo.
In 1859 he was raised to the Bishopric of Toronto, and in
1870 elevated to an Archdiocese. At that time was estab-
lished the Metropolitan See of Ontario, the ecclesiastical
Province of Quebec having been divided. Among numerous
institutions which Archbishop Lynch established was the
Carmelite Monastery at Niagara Falls, Ont.NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
101
As above noted, the church of Our Lady of Peace was
originally St. Edward’s. Until 1858 it was not a separate
parish, but was attended to from old Niagara; but in that
year Father Juhel was appointed its first resident pastor;
in that service he died, in 1862, and was buried beneath the
church.
The consecration of the cataract to the Blessed Virgin
of Peace followed the Papal grant of the privilege of pil-
grimage to the Church of the Blessed Virgin, called Our
Lady of Peace, overlooking the falls. “It was on the
Sunday within the Octave of Our Lady’s Assumption that
the church was dedicated. Hundreds of pilgrims, after
hearing mass in the city of Toronto, proceeded by steamer
and railway to the shrine. And when they came back, at
least upon the steamer, they chanted, with the sublime,
perpetual voice of the cataract for basso, the Vespers of
the Blessed Virgin; after which all knelt, with their faces
toward Toronto, in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament,
thanking the Redeemer, there present, for their preservation
from all casualties during that, the first pilgrimage to Our
Lady of Peace.” 1
It was in October, 1875, that the parish of Our Lady of
Peace was placed under the charge of the Fathers of the
Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, the most ancient Order
in the Catholic Church. In the following April Archbishop
Lynch issued the following Pastoral, which not only
embodies sundry facts germane to the history we here trace
*—the peace aspect and attributes of Niagara falls—but is
unique, in all the literature of Niagara, as a devout pane-
gyric and appreciation of the phenomena there presented
and of their spiritual application. His Grace’s Niagara
Pastoral is as follows:
1. Rev. Xavier Donald Macleod:	“History of the Devotion to the
Blessed Virgin Mary in North America,” New York, 1866; pp. 319-320.102
NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
The cataract of Niagara yearly attracts thousands of
lovers of sublimity and grandeur. They come to wonder,
but few, alas, to pray. The place has been to us from
childhood an object of the greatest interest. A picture of
it fell into our hands,—we were awestruck with its beauty,
and wished that we could adore God there. The vision of
it haunted us through life. The providence of God at
length conducted us to it, and almost miraculously provided
the means near the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels in
the diocese of Buffalo, N. Y. On our being appointed by
the Holy See Bishop of Toronto it was our first care to
secure on the Canada side of Niagara Falls a large tract
of land on which to erect religious establishments, where
God would be worshiped with a perfect homage of sacri-
fice and praise, and where the Catholic Church would be
fittingly represented.
It was at the commencement of the American Civil War.
Our heart was moved with sorrow at the loss of many lives,
and the prospect of so many souls going before God in
judgment, some, it is to be feared, but ill prepared. The
beautiful rainbow that spanned the cataract, the sign of
peace between God and the sinner, suggested prayers and
hopes to see the war soon ended; and we called the church
“Our Lady of Victories or of Peace.” A convent was soon
erected on the grounds, and nuns of the Institute of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, called of Loretto, were installed.
This Order had its heroic beginnings in the reigns of Henry
VIII. and Elizabeth of England. Ladies of noble birth
fled to Bavaria to avoid death or the loss of religious rights
in their own country. They formed a Religious Commun-
ity, approved of by Clement XI., reentered England to-
wards the close of the last century, and subsequently came
to Toronto on the invitation of its first bishop, the vener-
able and saintly Dr. Power. These good nuns, whilst not
engaged in imparting a higher education to young ladies
who assemble at the convent from all parts of the country,
occupy their time in adoring God and contemplating His
overflowing sweetness and bounty in the most blessed sac-
rament. Their chapel windows overlook the grandestNIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
103
scene in the world, and holy thoughts and prayer arise to
heaven as the spray ascends to form clouds that fertilize the
earth with refreshing showers. The convent chapel is dedi-
cated to the most blessed sacrament, in hopes that when
the Community may be sufficiently numerous, it may keep
up a perpetual adoration.
We have for many years searched for a fervent con-
gregation of men to found a monastery and a church worthy
of the place and its destination. Enthusiastic pilgrims of
Nature’s grandeur come here to enjoy its beauty; others,
alas, to drown remorse. We desired to have a religious
house where those pilgrims would be attracted to adore
Nature’s God in spirit and in truth, and who would there
find, in solitude and rest, how great and merciful God is.
The fathers of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
the most ancient in the Church, and dear to the heart of
our Blessed Mother, have commenced this good work. Our
Holy Father Pius IX. has been graciously pleased to confer
upon the present little church indulgences and other favors
granted to the most ancient pilgrimages of the old world.
The fathers also propose, when a suitable house is built, to
receive prelates and clergy of the Church as well as laity
to make retreats; and to those priests, worn out in the
service of their Divine Master, a home where they can
quietly prepare for eternity. Missions will also be given
in parishes by the religious at the request of the bishops.
A place more fitting for such an institution could hardly
be found. God Himself has made the selection. It is easy
of approach from all parts of the country, and on the con-
fines of two great Nations. We have full confidence that
God will finish His own good work by inspiring the hearts
that love Him, and His Blessed Mother of Mount Carmel,
to contribute to the erection of a church and monastery
there. Those pious souls will lay up for themselves treas-
ures in the bosom of God from which they will draw in
their great need, when about to balance their accounts be-
fore His judgment seat.
Let us accompany the Christian soul in his religious
pilgrimage at Niagara Falls. At first sight he will be104
NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
overawed by its grandeur, and stunned by its thunder; re-
covering, he will raise his heart to the God that created it,
and will presently sink down into the depths of his own
nothingness. For a while, he is completely absorbed, as if
entranced; after a time, he gains on himself, and cries
out, “Donline, Dominus noster Oh, Lord, Our Lord, how
admirable is Thy name on earth! To speak now is irksome
to him. His whole soul is filled with God, he wants to be
alone. Tears/ with an irresistible force, will relieve his
heart, and he shall soon exclaim, “What, O Lord, is man,
that Thou art mindful of him; or the son of man, that
Thou shouldst visit him.” He looks upon that broad, deep
and turbulent volume of water, dashing over a precipice
160 feet in height and 2800 feet in its whole span, with a
thunder echoed from the lake below with its mountain
banks; and thinks of the awful power of Him who speaks
in “the voice of many waters,” and of his own last leap
into eternity. In hope he raises his eyes and sees quietly
ascending clouds formed from the spray, bridged in the
center by a beautiful rainbow. Again he cries out: “Let
my prayer ascend as incense in Thy sight. Let my last
sigh be one of love, after making my peace with God and
the world.”
The water, as it sweeps over the fall, sinks deeply by its
weight and momentum; and after gurgling, seething and
foaming, rises again to the surface. One is reminded of
that purification which takes place after death, and the
troubles and agonies of the poor soul in the process of
purification, to be cleansed before its rising to enjoy the
brightness and glory of God’s sweet countenance. The
water of the lake below has also its warning lesson. It is
solemn and still as death after a busy and turbulent life.
Death holds many a deep secret of a good or an ill-spent
life. He is aroused from his reverie by the shriek and
noise of an engine, as it whirls on by the banks above,
with its string of cars filled with the fashionable and gay,
some intent on pleasure, others on gain. “Oh,” he may
say, “poor mortals, how long will you hunt after vanity
and be in love with lies! In a few years you will be allNIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
105
gone, and what will be the fate of your immortal souls for
all eternity ?”
Let us return with the pilgrim to the monastery, and
rest a little, and from the windows of his temporary cell
contemplate the rapids above the falls. It is morning. At
the horizon, where the waters and the clouds appear to
meet, all is calm and tranquil. Soon the river contracts;
and peacefully running for awhile, it meets with ledges of
rock, and dashing itself into foam and whirling eddies,
forms hundreds of small waterfalls, which, catching the
rays of the morning sun, appear as so many white crested
billows of the sea after a storm. Joy and gladness are
typified in those sparkling waves. Occasionally, tiny rain-
bows may be seen enamelling the brows of those miniature
cataracts; and as innumerable bubbles fall, pearls and
jewels are reflected in prismatic colors in the foam. In
these are seen emblems of the morning of life, when candor,
humility and loveliness portray the innocence of a happy
soul basking in the sunshine of God’s love. Everything
now is gay and joyful, and bright with hopes of wealth and
pleasure, and a long and happy life. The world presents
itself in all those gorgeous coldrs that dazzle the imagina-
tion, but the time shall come when disappointments, sor-
rows and sickness will overtake him; a troubled and stormy
life may be his lot; and he shall be, when the soul shall
tremble on the precipice of eternity, awaiting to be ushered
into the presence of his Maker. Then, indeed, will the
pleasures and honors of the world appear as cruel mock-
eries, and sacrifices for Christ the only treasures worthy of
man’s toil. A day will arrive when this beauty will be
changed. The unheeding Christian dwells on hopes of
grandeur and wealth, and hurries from pleasure to pleasure
until at length the soul, writhing in remorse, is launched
into an unhappy eternity from which there is no returning.
On rainy days a great change comes over the whole
scenery, at the Falls. The atmosphere is gloomy and the
clouds heavier here than elsewhere. The roar of the catar-
act, striking against the condemned atmosphere, booms like
continuous distant thunder. The mind is wrapped in sol-106
NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
emn melancholy, and is brought to think of that pall of
death which daily hangs over every one, the sinner and the
saint. If a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning should
add their terrors to the scene, the soul must be forcibly
reminded of that awful day of judgment, and of the as-
sembled children of Adam in the valley of Jehoshaphat,
and of the questions:	What hast thou done with many
graces that I have given to thee, and where are the souls
that you have scandalized and ruined, both by word and
example ?” When night comes on, the soul is wrapped, as
it were, in its own winding sheet, and longs for some se-
cure repose. How sweet and consoling it will be in those
days of gloom to retire to the chapel of Our Lady of Peace,
where the heart, though oppressed with sadness, yet raises
itself up to God in hope for mercy, and cries for pardon
and grace through the intercession of His Blessed Mother.
In the midst of the rapids are seen small islands covered
with cedar and balsam trees sitting quietly in the sunshine,
the waves dashing around them. The pilgrim may be re-
minded here of the soul strong in the grace of God and
calm in the midst of the troubles of the world; and yet
“in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto
him.” (Psalm xxxii.) How many hearts, after having dis-
charged their load of sin and sorrow in the tribunal of
Penance, will look upon those islands of peace, and that
rainbow of hope, and on the glorious scene around with
eyes filled with tears of gratitude welling up from an
humble and contrite heart! He will bless his merciful God,
who, notwithstanding his many crimes, has put around him
the robe of innocence, and on his finger the ring that should
remind him of a father’s love and of a son’s gratitude and
fidelity. Joy and hope will renew his youth. In this holy
retreat of Niagara Falls many will find the road to heaven,
and the true pleasure of serving God, and the real joy of
having escaped the terrors of the world to come.
In winter time, also, the pilgrim will be taught sublime
lessons. The trees and shrubs around are covered with
ice, and myriads of glassy pendants hang from the
branches, reflecting in dazzling brightness the rays of theNIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
107
sun, and by night those of the moon. May he not consider
a soul encircled by the beauty of God's graces, purchased
for Him through the blood of Christ?
He will hear a crash. It is a branch of a tree that breaks
down under its weight of icicles. Alas, how many souls
break away from God, though highly favored with His
special graces, and are never again engrafted on the vine
that is Christ!
Again, may it not remind him of the death of the young,
the beautiful, and the high-born, snatched away from the
caresses of friends, the splendors of fortune, and laid low
in the grave? The lunar bow by night will give him hopes
that in the darkest hour of sin and sorrow God’s mercy-
seat is always approachable.
The cataract of Niagara has been well called “Nature’s
high altar”: the water, as it descends in white foam, the
altar-cloth; the spray, the incense; the rainbow, the lights
on the altar. One must cry out: “Great is the Lord and
admirable are His works! How great is Thy name through
the whole world! Let us adore and love Him with our
whole hearts and our whole souls.”
As the pilgrim passes over one of the bridges that span
the islands, he will see torrents of water rushing madly as
it were from the clouds, the only background to be seen;
and he is reminded of the cataracts of heaven opened, and
the earth drowned on account of sin. Here the soul, over-
awed with terror, might exclaim:	“Come, let us hide in
the clefts of the rocks, in the wounds of Jesus Christ, from
the face of an angry God.”
New beauties are constantly discovering themselves at
Niagara. The eye, wandering from beauty to beauty, com-
pels the soul to salute its Maker, “as always ancient and
always new.”
The pilgrim may cast his mind back a few centuries,
and consider the Indians, encamped around the Falls, tell-
ing the simple tales about the creation of the world, and
adoring God in the twilight of their intelligences, in the
best manner they could; and he might vividly portray the
whole tribe preparing the most beautiful virgin for sacri-108
NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
fice. She is dressed in white, and placed in a white canoe,
the father and mother, sisters and friends, bidding their
last adieus and wetting her cheeks with tears as they placed
her in the frail bark and shoved it off on the edge of the
great precipice, that she might be a sacrifice of propitiation
and sweet pleasure to the Great Spirit, to obtain pardon
for the sins of her tribe, and good hunting. What sublime
reflections will the recollections of this awful ceremony
bring up !1
God is great and powerful and just; but He is appeased
with a sacrifice. “An humble and contrite heart, O Lord,
Thou wilt not despise.” The poor Indians must have heard
of the great sacrifice which God always demanded as an
acknowledgment of His sovereign dominion over the whole
world, and of the sacrifices which He exacts on account of
sin. Perhaps they heard of the great sacrifices of Adam
and of Noah, Isaac and Jacob, and of the sacrifice of the
Adorable Son of God. In their simple ignorance they
wished to sacrifice something themselves; the young, pure
and handsome virgin is their greatest treasure. She
is sacrificed. She is sent over the Falls. They are all
now dead and gone, and they are before the Great Spirit
which they strove to worship, and perhaps would cry with
David: “Recollect not, O God, our ignorance.” May not
i. The sacrifice of an- Indian maiden at Niagara is the most familiar
legend connected with the cataract. For the sake of a spiritual application
Archbishop Lynch accepted it, as countless other writers, poets, and artists
have accepted it. The present-day Senecas are familiar with it as a tradition;
yet the present compiler is skeptical whether it is anything but white man's
invention. Many of the ancient Iroquois or other aboriginal rites and cere-
monies are known to us; ' a few of them relate to Niagara; but this sacrifice
of the maiden is not found among them. The nearest approach to it the
present writer has found, in records based on scientific research and- not on
imaginings, more or less poetic, is the Seneca legend of Hi-nun, the Thunder
God of the Iroquois. This tells how an Indian maiden, to escape a distasteful
marriage, leaped into her canoe and was borne over the cataract, but was
caught on the wings of Hi-nun, God of Cloud and Rain, and carried to his
abode in a cave behind the falls. She ultimately returned to her people and
rendered them great service, for from the god she had learned of a monster
snake which caused sickness. This snake was finally killed by Hi-nun, and
his body floated down the Niagara. “As the weight of the monster pressed on
the rocks they gave way and thus the Horseshoe form, that remains to this
day, was fashioned.” The curious reader will find the legend, at length, m
the report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institute, for 1880-81. In
-1847 Schoolcraft gave a variant of this legend (“Notes on the Iroquois”), but
neither he nor any other early writer, so far as noted, records the story of the
maiden sacrifice.NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE. 109
the Christian soul here say to God: "I have been endowed
with knowledge, and with wisdom, and with grace, and
know that my Lord was offered in sacrifice for me; and
1 wish to make no sacrifice myself. I have sinned, and
have not sacrificed my evil passions and worldly inclina-
tions. Come, poor Indians, teach me your simplicity, which
is better than my foolish wisdom.”
Again, he will see a bird calmly and joyously flitting
across this mighty chasm, looking down fearlessly on the
scene below. It is in its native air; it has wings to soar.
Thus the soul that is freed from sin has its wings also. It
can look down with serenity upon the wreck of worlds, and
in death it is placed in the midst of the storms of evil
spirits, and when everything around is in fury and com-
motion, arises quietly towards its God to rest calmly in His
embrace.
The Catholic Church, or, to speak more plainly, the sub-
lime religious souls under her influence, always sought the
most beautiful and romantic places to erect monasteries and
churches to the service of God. Christ himself retired to
the mountain to pray, and He sought the solitude of Thabor
to manifest His glory, and Gethsemane to pour forth His
sorrows into the bosom of His Father. The soul, with-
drawn from the din and the noise and the bustle of this
world, breaks from its tension and soars towards God. The
fathers of the desert sought the wilderness and the moun-
tain caves, there to adore their God. Our forefathers in
the faith, also, peopled the islands in the Atlantic, erecting
their monasteries in clefts overlooking the mighty ocean,
where the monks sat and contemplated God in the fearful
storms and in the raging waves that dashed over the rocks;
and admired the works of His providence in the flight
and screech of the ravens and gulls. In a storm they would
imagine souls in distress, crying out, “Where is my God?”
See them also on the islands of blessed Lough Erne. They
beheld the serenity of the sky above, and the peaceful
waters below, and were led to sweet and calm repose in
God. Again, they sought the clefts of the mountains over-
looking the smiling valleys, where they could feast their110
NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
eyes on the riches and beauties of God in the fertile fields
below, and pity busy mortals in their incessant toil after
the things that perish. Behold the lilies of the field, the
birds of the air, God clothes and provides for all. He fills
the soul that is empty of this world.
In Europe there are many sanctuaries, but few in this
new world. Niagara will be one, and first of the most
famous where God will be adored on the spot in which He
manifests Himself in such incomparable majesty and
grandeur. The festivals that will be most religiously cele-
brated in this sanctuary, besides the first-class festivals of
the Church, are the 9th of July, called Our Lady of
Miracles, or Peace; the 16th, Our Lady of Mount Carmel;
29th of September, the festival of St. Michael; 15th of
October, St. Teresa; 21st of November, Presentation of
the Plessed Virgin; and the 10th of December, festival of
Our Lady of Loretto.
On May 16, 1892, Pope Leo XIII., to quote from a
parish publication, “animated by a desire to increase the
devotion to Our Blessed Lady of Mount Carmel, has by a
special brief enriched the churches and Chapels of the
Carmelite Order with a precious privilege for their great
feast, July 16th, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.”
In order to endow this famous shrine of Our Lady of
Peace with all the spiritual treasures possible, His Grace
Archbishop McNeil of Toronto, on January 26, 1913, was
pleased to make the main altar a “privileged altar,” so that
“in addition to the ordinary fruits of the Eucharistic Sacri-
fice, a plenary indulgence is also granted whenever Mass is
celebrated thereon; and this indulgence is always applied
to the person, living or deceased, for whom the Mass Is
offered.”
This shrine, standing somewhat apart from the paths
and places most frequented by tourists at Niagara, over-
looks the Horseshoe fall and upper rapids. The littleNIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
Ill
church, plain and very modest in appearance, is enriched
with good stained-glass windows. Close beside it is the
burial-ground. A few steps distant, the monastery stands
on the very verge of the high bank overlooking the great
river. It is small, old and, save for a small library, con-
tains only the most meager necessities for life and worship,
for it is devoted to the use of a mendicant order. The
peace that should guard such a retreat, though no doubt
still there in a spiritual sense, was sadly intruded upon
when a railroad cut its way through the grounds. But the
Carmelite Fathers live for others; and the neighboring
Hospice, a large modern building, serves not merely for
religious retreat but as a guest-house for all who may come.
Already ample, the plans contemplate great extension in
the future. An adjoining farm of 200 acres is carried on
by these Carmelites. Public pilgrimages are made to the
shrine on July 16th, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount
Carmel; and on August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin (Lady Day).
A notable incident in the recent history of this church
was the attendance there, on May 24, 1914, of the peace
mediators from Argentina, Brazil and Chili, and the dele-
gates appointed by Mexico and the United States to confer
with them in behalf of peaceful relations between these
republics. Niagara Falls, Ontario, had been selected for
the Peace Conference because of its convenience. Gathered
there by purely practical and political reasons, delegates
and mediators found themselves on this Sunday morning of
May, assembled for worship at a shrine specifically conse-
crated to Peace.1
1. “That the Catholic Church has no boundary line, knows no frontier in
her spiritual kingdom, but is at home in all the nations of the world, was
demonstrated last Sunday morning in the humble little Chapel of Our Lady
of Peace, Niagara Falls, Ont., when before the altar of a modest Canadian112
NIAGARA’S CONSECRATION TO PEACE.
shrine, in the domain of the British empire knelt Latin, Mexican, Saxon and
Celt, representing the nations that own the two great Americas. It was the
solemn peace mass, the only religious service which is universal, which through
the ages has daily pronounced the Master's word Dominus Vobiscum, hence
the one at which the distinguished envoys of the Governments desirous of
peace in distracted Mexico could meet as brothers. Long before the hour set
for. mass, 11 o’clock, the envoys and delegates had taken the seats close to*
the altar, while back of them the pews were filled to their capacity with vil-
lagers and newspaper representatives of American and foreign journal®.
“There was peace in the lovely Sunday morning sunshine and flower-per-
fumed air that blew across orchards in blossom and flower beds in bloom.
An atmosphere of peace and religion surrounded the site of the famous little
Carmelite shrine perched away up on the grass-covered cliff overlooking one
of Nature’s most sublime features, Niagara’s cataract. Even the tiny grave-
yard at one side spoke of the peace that never ends. . . . The mass was a
solemn high one and the sermon of considerable length, yet not a man present
quitted his seat until the priests had left the altar, while the devotional be-
havior of the Catholic envoys and the respectful ones of the non-Catholics, were
(tributes to Christian belief, and the solemn duty each had undertaken, as
members of the ABC mediation conference on the Mexican question.
“The Rev. B. J. O’Neill, O. C. C., was celebrant and Father Kehoe of
St. Augustine Seminary, Toronto, and Father Vazza of the Carmelite Mon-
astery, were deacon and sub-deacon. The Rev. George J. Krim, S. J., presi-
dent of Canisius College, Buffalo, preached the peace sermon. . . .”—Buffalo
Cathplic Union and Times, May 28, 1914.