ARNOLD 
 DAM EN, S. J. 
 
LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN * 
 
 B 
 D157C 
 
 I .H.S 
 
 
f&JCrENT OF THE HOLT ^AMJS 
 $M SOUTH BREED STREET 
 T,QS ANGELES. GAL. 
 
ARNOLD DAMEN, S.J. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 THE EARLY FRIENDS OF CHRIST 
 OUT TO WIN 
 TALKS TO PARENTS 
 TALKS TO BOYS 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/arnolddamensjchaOOconr 
 
Arnold Damen, S.J. 
 
ARNOLD DAMEN, S.J 
 
 A CHAPTER IN THE MAKING OP CHICAGO 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JOSEPH P. CONROY, S.J. 
 
 Author of "The Early Friends of Christ," etc. 
 
 TJ)8 /mQ^LMS. GAL. 
 
 New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, San Francisco 
 
 BENZIGER BROTHERS 
 
 printers to the holt apostolic see 
 1930 
 
Smprimi |totegt. 
 Smprtmatur. 
 
 Matthew Germing, S.J. 
 Praep. Prov. Missourianae 
 
 Arthur J. Scanlan, S.T.D. 
 Censor Librorum 
 
 •^■Patrick Cardinal Hayes 
 Archbishop of New York 
 
 New York, November 25, 1929 
 
 ARNOLD DAMEN, S.J. .* COPYRIGHT, 1930, BY BENZIGER 
 BROTHERS I PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
TO THE MEMORY 
 
 OF THE EARLY MEMBERS 
 
 OF THE PARISH OF THE HOLY FAMILY 
 
 HELPERS OF DAMEN 
 
 WHOSE DEEDS LIVE AFTER THEM 
 
 IN THE FAITH THEY SPREAD 
 IN THE COUNTRY THEY SERVED 
 
 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 
 Dedication 
 
 V 
 
 
 Note of Acknowledgment 
 
 ix 
 
 I 
 
 A Sermon and a Storm 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 The Homeland of Damen 
 
 6 
 
 III 
 
 The Path to a Vocation 
 
 12 
 
 IV 
 
 His New Home 
 
 22 
 
 V 
 
 Early Years in the Priesthood 
 
 36 
 
 VI 
 
 The Gift of Preaching 
 
 48 
 
 VII 
 
 In Young Chicago 
 
 55 
 
 VIII 
 
 A Parish on the Prairie 
 
 68 
 
 IX 
 
 Building the Church 
 
 78 
 
 X 
 
 At Work in the Parish 
 
 98 
 
 XI 
 
 Currents and Cross-Currents 
 
 118 
 
 XII 
 
 Damen Faces the School Problem 
 
 135 
 
 XIII 
 
 A Discovery and Its Results 
 
 149 
 
 XIV 
 
 Founding a College 
 
 164 
 
 XV 
 
 The Chicago Fire and After 
 
 177 
 
 XVI 
 
 The Work of the Missions 
 
 192 
 
 XVII 
 
 The Call for Missionaries 
 
 212 
 
 XVIII 
 
 The Circle Widens 
 
 230 
 
 XIX 
 
 Fathers Damen and Smarius 
 
 245 
 
 XX 
 
 A Teacher of Men 
 
 263 
 
 XXI 
 
 A Criticism and Its Answer 
 
 275 
 
 XXII 
 
 Some Memories of Father Damen 
 
 284 
 
 XXIII 
 
 His Golden Jubilee 
 
 297 
 
 XXIV 
 
 Spiritual Traits 
 
 303 
 
 XXV 
 
 Last Days 
 
 316 
 
 
 Index 
 
 323 
 
NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 
 THE author wishes to express his gratitude to 
 those who have assisted him in the making of 
 this book. In addition to the acknowledgments made 
 during the course of the story, he is further indebted 
 to the Reverend Martin Bronsgeest, SJ., of St. Xa- 
 vier's College, Cincinnati, for translations from the 
 Dutch; to the Reverend James J. Daly, S.J., of St. 
 Louis University, and to the Reverend William T. 
 Kane, S.J., of Loyola University, Chicago, for val- 
 uable suggestions and corrections. Portions of the 
 manuscript were critically read by the Reverend Louis 
 R. Falley, S.J., also of Loyola University. 
 
 The author had the privilege of reading the manu- 
 script of the forthcoming work of Father Garraghan, 
 the History of the Missouri Province, from which 
 many interesting facts were taken. 
 
 The History of the Holy Family Parish, by Brother 
 Thomas Mulkerins, S.J., of Loyola University, was 
 likewise a source of the very greatest help. Brother 
 Mulkerins provided, too, many original documents 
 and reports, and gave much personal aid throughout. 
 
 IX 
 
ARNOLD DAMEN, S.J. \ 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A SERMON AND A STORM 
 
 ONE dark April night, just fifty years ago, a group 
 of persons were hurrying through a street of 
 Chicago's south side. In the midst of this group was a 
 little boy of nine years, who was put to it to keep the 
 pace of his elders, whom he was accompanying. And 
 the going was not without its hazards, for it must be 
 remembered that the sidewalks of Chicago in those 
 days were, like delicate lace work, largely composed 
 of interstices. To hurry along its streets at night called 
 for a degree of daring and indicated that some hap- 
 pening of importance was under way. 
 
 All nights in Chicago were, of course, dark, the 
 feeble gas lamps at intervals merely marking a spot 
 where one might ultimately arrive if one were careful. 
 But this night, the boy remembers, was black. Under- 
 foot, mud on the sidewalks, mud in the street; over- 
 head, almost scraping the roofs of the nouses, 
 wallowed folds of heavy clouds with terrifying growl- 
 ings coming from their caverns. Every few seconds 
 hideous forked lightnings streaked out as though dart- 
 ing and searching about for somebody to shrivel to a 
 cinder. One of the scenes they lit up, the boy recalls, was 
 the city morgue at Eighteenth Street, a spot wild horses 
 could not have dragged him by any night he was alone. 
 Ghosts were popularly believed to walk there, and 
 pop-eyed boys told hair-raising tales of having seen 
 and been chased by them. 
 
1 ^Arnold T>amen y S.J. 
 
 But the white lightning glare revealed other things, 
 too. Other dark groups, who could not be ghosts, were 
 momentarily visible in the flashes, pushing ahead 
 against the swooping gusts of wind, picking their way 
 in single file across the ankle-deep mud at the cross- 
 ings, all the groups converging toward a dense crowd 
 that was steadily disappearing into the doors of a 
 church at Eighteenth and Butterfield Streets — St. 
 John's Church, then in the suburbs of Chicago. 
 
 A mission was in progress there and the great 
 Father 'Diamond' was to preach. 
 
 In due time the group to which the little boy be- 
 longed got into the church and found place in the few 
 empty seats left at the rear. The crowds came packing 
 in after them until the aisles, the sanctuary, every spot 
 of standing room in the church was taken. The tiny 
 vestibule gave evidence, from the pushing of bodies 
 and the sliding of feet, that the only place left for 
 many who came would be the street. Any fire com- 
 missioner today would be terrified at the crowd 
 jammed into every inch of that wooden church. A few 
 jets of gaslight from brackets on the walls did little 
 more than make the darkness visible, producing the 
 impression of some mysterious, subterranean gather- 
 ing in the catacombs. 
 
 After what must have been a sharp struggle to pierce 
 the crowd, the preacher of the evening rose into the 
 pulpit and stood, looking at the congregation. Then, 
 amid a perfect silence, Father Damen made the sign of 
 the cross, Tn the name of the Father and of the Son 
 and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.' And just as he had 
 finished the words, the storm broke. 'Broke' isn't the 
 word. It exploded. The very first crash of thunder 
 that shot out of the sky made the whole building 
 shudder from stem to stern, like a ship hit by a tre- 
 mendous sea. The gaslights along the wall were all 
 but extinguished and the church went into total dark- 
 
c/f Sermon and a Storm 3 
 
 ness. A moment, and a flash of lightning, crackling 
 viciously, swept through the windows and lit the in- 
 terior brighter than day. Then a second thunder crack, 
 worse than the first and apparently right over the roof, 
 and the congregation began to show signs of fear. 
 They held, however, and the threatened stampede did 
 not start. Because Father Damen opened his sermon 
 and went on with it as though thunder and lightning 
 did not exist. The boy who listened that night will 
 never forget that sermon and that storm. And yet, 
 except the words of the sign of the cross, he does not 
 remember a single word of the sermon. The whole af- 
 fair resolved itself, in his young mind, into a contest 
 between Father Damen and the thunder ; and with the 
 sporting instinct of youth, he was wondering, and 
 perhaps betting, who would win. The storm did not 
 let up. One would imagine that with its first dozen ter- 
 rific bolts it would have exhausted itself, or that the 
 sword of the blinding lightning would weary. No ; the 
 battle went on and on, with Father Damen in the pul- 
 pit there battling against them. When the lightning 
 flashed around him in the pulpit, he was like the Bible 
 pictures of Moses on Mount Sinai, receiving the ta- 
 bles of the Law, his white hair, his giant figure, his 
 voice on the mountain top, mediating between God 
 and the people. In after years, when the boy read 
 about the historic storm scene at St. Peter's in Rome 
 when the Cardinals of the Vatican Council were voting 
 one by one for the Infallibility of the Pope and the 
 Placets of their Eminences were each answered by a 
 terrific crash of thunder above the dome — he recalled 
 that night in St. John's Church, with Father Damen 
 preaching, when he had heard its duplicate. And, like 
 Moses and like the Cardinals, Father Damen won the 
 contest. His voice poured through that raging of the 
 elements, steady, melodious and triumphant. If any 
 human voice was ever put to the test, surely his was 
 
4 ^Arnold Damen, SJ. 
 
 that night. And it was not merely that he sounded 
 above the thunder. His words came forth articulate 
 and clear. He preached a sermon through all that crack 
 and roar of heavy artillery and that incessant, dazzling, 
 disturbing glitter of dangerous lightning, and he 
 seemed to do it easily. He did not shriek, shout or 
 bellow. He kept his voice on the key all the way, with 
 indefinite resources of power held in reserve for every 
 emergency. When he needed more power, all he had 
 to do was, as the chauffeur has it, to 'step on it' 
 and the power was there. 
 
 The astute reader has, no doubt, already penetrated 
 the mystery of the passive small boy in this scene 
 and has identified him with the writer. Well, that was 
 the first time I heard Father Damen preach — likewise 
 the last. As I have admitted that I do not recall a single 
 word of the one sermon I attended, it may be inferred 
 that I never heard him at all. But this I cannot admit. 
 Just as there are songs, so there are sermons without 
 words. Many of us, perhaps, after years of experi- 
 ence, wish there were more of both. Not suggesting 
 the least criticism, however, of Father Damen's words, 
 I am sure I took vital strength from his sermon, sure 
 that I sensed what he meant to tell me. Indeed, of all 
 the sermons I have since listened to, and they have not 
 been few, the sermon of Father Damen in St. John's 
 Church that wild night is the one I remember best and, 
 as far as I can judge, took most away from. The oc- 
 casion was admittedly spectacular, the sulphurous fires 
 and the all-shaking thunder without, suggesting evil 
 spirits in Miltonic battle, and the clear, musical, un- 
 broken voice of Father Damen ringing through the 
 confusion with unwavering defiance, like the arch- 
 angel's trumpet challenging the demons to the fight. 
 
 But there was something deeper than mere pag- 
 eantry. The man revealed himself beyond possibility 
 of misconception. Faith was there, the rooted belief 
 
zA Sermon and a Storm 5 
 
 that was part of him. One sensed it easily ; determined 
 courage, a disregard of difficulties, a fearlessness of 
 danger ; personal affection for the souls of his people ; 
 a stanch, direct sincerity that brought him into touch 
 with every person in the church and a tenacity that 
 would not let go until he had Drought them all over 
 to his side. The man was there and the subject and 
 the occasion. And it is the man I remember. 
 
 If a boy of nine can be so moved by a sermon and 
 can recall it so vividly after fifty years, it can only 
 mean that Father Damen possessed the gift of elo- 
 quence and that the affection and the admiration lav- 
 ished on him by his generation was neither misplaced 
 nor exaggerated. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE HOMELAND OF DAMEN 
 
 THERE is a hardy perennial saying, handed down 
 to us very likely from the Garden of Eden, to the 
 effect that appearances are deceitful. Such an evident 
 truism in theory is this, that it pains us to hear it. In 
 practice, however, we ignore it so steadily that it is 
 doubtful that a day passes but every one of us trips 
 and falls heavily over it. I bring it in here, not for the 
 purpose of pointing a moral, but because I am going 
 to talk about Holland and I begin by raising a warning 
 finger. 
 
 The man in the street, if you should mention Hol- 
 land to him, would know all about it. 'Yes/ he would 
 unravel, 'a little place over in Europe about as big as 
 a golf course; full of water hazards; people wear 
 baggy trousers, flamboyant petticoats, wooden shoes, 
 steeple hats. You see them in those pictures of Rip 
 Van Winkle we studied in school. They used to be 
 around New York in the old days, a lot of them. 
 Dutchmen, they called them. A stolid sort; no action; 
 can sit in one spot all day with a stein on the table, 
 and smoking a meerschaum pipe; got a big reputation 
 for cheese/ 
 
 This is funny, but the man in the street doesn't 
 think it is. He passes this out as a bit of accurate sta- 
 tistics. It is the sediment of history and no more belongs 
 to history than mud belongs to the water it set- 
 tles in. The truth is that Holland is the 'fightingest' 
 country in Europe. In fact, considering her area, not 
 much more than a hundred miles square, we think 
 
 6 
 
The Homeland, of T)amen 7 
 
 it safe to claim that more fighting has been done on 
 that tiny space than in any equal territory of the 
 world's history. Up to 1579, while Holland was part 
 of the Netherlands, her story is one of battle after 
 battle. Since then and until the end of the French 
 Revolution in 18 15, Holland has fought with Spain, 
 with France, England, Germany, Austria, Sweden and 
 Belgium. For many years her navy was the strongest 
 in the world, and held its own against the combined 
 fleets of France and England. Her merchant ships 
 touched at every coast, and we remember that it was 
 Dutchmen who first sailed up the Hudson River. 
 Among other feats of her busy martial life, she drove 
 Spain out of her boundaries several times, drove out 
 Louis XIV and, twice, Napoleon. She has been called 
 the 'battlefield of Europe.' 
 
 All this fighting does not mean that the Dutch are a 
 particularly quarrelsome people. It is the result, partly 
 of her geographical position and partly of her na- 
 tional occupation. Geographically, Holland was the 
 pivotal point for all the whirl of clashing nations in 
 the west of Europe, and the winds of war kept con- 
 stantly buffeting her from one alliance to another in a 
 continually shifting political scene. Nationally she is 
 a commercial and a seafaring country and she had to 
 have sea room for her markets. In a world where 
 everyone is grabbing for markets, this meant only one 
 thing for Holland — she had to fight. 
 
 In her civil and religious life, too, she has been 
 torn by internal discords, most of which can be traced 
 back to the troubles arising from the Reformation. 
 Holland had always been a sturdy Catholic country, 
 and if her priests had been true to her, there is every 
 probability that, with her natural tenacity of charac- 
 ter, she would be entirely so today. But as the Zuyder 
 Zee broke through her dikes to get into the land, so 
 did the Calvinists break through her outer defenses, 
 
8 ^Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 the clergy, to eat into her religious life. A persecution 
 of the Catholics followed, which for bitter cruelty is 
 comparable only to the persecution of Henry VIII 
 and Elizabeth in England. All this reacted upon her 
 civil life. Politics and theology became inextricably 
 entangled, and, when the Calvinists later split among 
 themselves, further divisions arose that have lasted to 
 the present time. 
 
 But even if all these things had not happened to 
 Holland, she would have had another big fight on her 
 hands. All through her history she has had to fight the 
 sea. Hamlet's line about 'taking arms against a sea of 
 troubles' cannot be criticized as a mixed metaphor in 
 Holland. It is literally true of her. For seven hundred 
 years, while pushing back the armies of Europe with 
 one hand, she has had to keep pushing back the sea 
 with the other. Between diking, impoldering, draining, 
 canalling, she has had enough to do simply to keep the 
 ground under her feet. She is forever at the pumps. 
 For Holland is largely below the sea level, and the sea 
 is after her. Already out of an area only one fourth the 
 size of Illinois, the North Sea has taken two huge 
 mouthfuls, the Zuyder Zee and the Wadden, one- 
 seventh of her territory. Disastrous inundations have 
 from time to time swept over the land. One of them, in 
 1 42 1, destroyed seventy-two towns and more than a 
 hundred thousand lives. She is the most sea-bitten 
 country in the world, living under the sleepless menace 
 of treacherous waters. Her energy is evident in this 
 also, that, after studying the tactics of the sea, she has 
 counter-attacked so as not only to hold her own but 
 actually to gain upon her foe. 
 
 Nor shall we fully appreciate the ability, vigor and 
 tenacity of the Dutch without remembering her colo- 
 nies. On a large map of Europe, Holland is merely a 
 thumbnail's size. But off along the Equator between 
 the Pacific and Indian Oceans, for three hundred years 
 
The Homeland of Domett 9 
 
 and more, she has owned, developed and governed a 
 territory fifty-seven times as large as herself, with a 
 population today of nearly fifty million people, as many 
 as the United States had in 1880. This population in- 
 cludes natives of every variety found in the Far East, 
 and she governs them all with only thirty-six thousand 
 soldiers, of whom but six thousand are Europeans. Of 
 all colonies, those of the Dutch are most prosperous, 
 well cared for and contented. This ordered and steady 
 control of a distant colony, with an area one fifth as 
 large as the United States, including Alaska, and 
 scattered across a multitude of islands, is effected 
 largely by the civil service established in the Dutch 
 East Indies, the most remarkable in the world. 
 
 All things considered, then, it is the nadir of mis- 
 information to say that there has been 'no action' in 
 Holland. To meet the situations forced upon her, she 
 couldn't be idle even if she wished it. As to the re- 
 puted stolidity of the Dutch temperament, it is per- 
 haps a providential balance that the Dutchman has 
 about him a touch of phlegm. Otherwise, between the 
 war devil whooping on his boundaries and the deep 
 sea battering at his coast, he would long since have 
 been driven, not only out of his country, but out of 
 his mind as well. Considering what he has been 
 through, nobody should envy the Dutchman his long 
 pipe and a long smoke out of it. The pipe is dry and the 
 smoke is quiet, and dryness and quiet are things he 
 has learned to appreciate. 
 
 If from this snapshot of Holland's history we 
 should attempt to deduce the salient features of her 
 national character, the result could be stated, reason- 
 ably, I think, in the following terms : The Dutchman 
 is a determined, tenacious person, or he would have 
 been long ago washed out of his country, or bayoneted 
 out of it ; he is practical rather than visionary, expect- 
 ing tangible results from his investment of time and 
 
IO Arnold TDamen, SJ. 
 
 labor. This we could forecast from the long training 
 he has had in bailing out his fatherland. He is a 
 courageous lover of justice, freedom and his personal 
 rights, as the frequent wars he has engaged in amply 
 prove. He can be downright and intolerant, as his re- 
 ligious history testifier* Vigilance and patience he must 
 have learned along the dikes; economy, from the ne- 
 cessity of snatching his land in handfuls from the sea. 
 Material realities he* can grasp firmly, as a man in the 
 sea will take a death grip on a floating spar. His first 
 look will be for what is useful. 'Safety first' is his 
 slogan. He is cool, calculating, deliberate, because he 
 has always had to be wary about keeping his feet on 
 dry land and his head away from flying cannon balls. 
 Visualizing the Dutchman in a composite portrait, 
 we should picture to ourselves a figure standing, both 
 feet sturdily planted, and looking about him with a 
 long, slow, wondering look, as much as to say, 'Well, 
 that's all over. What next?' And beneath the picture 
 we should see written the national motto of Holland — 
 Luctor et Emergo. 
 
 We must not conclude from all this that, in her pur- 
 suit of the useful, Holland has forgotten or neglected 
 the beautiful. The Dutchman has his visions, too. He 
 has, if not an effusive, at any rate a steady and gen- 
 uine enthusiasm for the arts. He is well educated, he 
 likes music, he is world-famous as a painter, and if 
 he had not had to put in so much time at building 
 dikes, he would doubtless have done noble work in 
 architecture. 
 
 Finally, religion is one of the great occupations of 
 the Dutchman's soul. 'It has always been the wonder 
 of travelers in Holland,' says a recent writer, 'that so 
 many religious sects should exist in so small a coun- 
 try.' These disruptions occur, of course, only among 
 Protestant bodies. They prove Holland's downright 
 discontent with her experiment in Calvinism. When 
 
7 he Homeland of T>amen II 
 
 the usually shrewd and foresighted Dutchman traded 
 of! his Roman Catholicism for Calvinism, that was 
 surely one time he had an eye shut and a foot off the 
 ground. He got the worst of that bargain. It seems a 
 pity, after barring out the sea and driving off all in- 
 vaders on his material side, that on his spiritual side 
 he should have opened the sluices to the dreary and 
 corrosive flood of Calvinism — of all religions — and 
 allowed himself to bog down in that hopelessly gloomy 
 morass. He is, however, trying to flounder out of it. 
 Catholicism, which was once his strength and comfort, 
 may save him yet. For it begins to appear that he is 
 trading back, slowly but surely. Holland is now nearly 
 forty per cent Catholic. Let us hope that after Calvin- 
 ism has split itself into a million splinters, he will 
 gather them all up, throw them over the dikes some- 
 where and walk back to the Catholic Church. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE PATH TO A VOCATION 
 
 IN THIS little country of storm and stress Arnold 
 Damen was born. As we follow and observe him 
 throughout his career, we shall find ourselves in touch 
 with the typical, ideal Hollander. His birthplace was 
 in North Brabant, in the little town of Leur, not far 
 from the Belgian frontier. Arnold was the seventh of 
 nine children born to John Damen and his wife Jo- 
 hannah, whose family name was also Damen. John 
 Damen was a prosperous builder of Leur and he lived 
 there until his death in 1848, preceding his wife by but 
 a few months. 
 
 The baptismal register of the church at Leur tells 
 us that young Arnold was baptized on the day he was 
 born, March 15, 181 5. One of his sponsors was the 
 Very Reverend Arnold Van Arendonk, after whom 
 very likely he was named. From these two facts we 
 may infer that the Damen family were devout follow- 
 ers of their faith and in close touch with their priests. 
 It was not easy to be a Catholic in Holland in those 
 days. Out of the two million inhabitants then in Hol- 
 land but four hundred thousand were Catholics, all 
 that were left after two centuries of official persecu- 
 tion. This remnant had come through the fire and they 
 must have been stanch to endure it. They were the 
 foundation of the strong Church of two million Cath- 
 olics in Holland today. And the Damens were among 
 them. 
 
 Arnold Damen was born just at the turning point 
 where we may say the modern Holland began. Five 
 
 12 
 
The Tath to a Vocation 13 
 
 days before his birth, the prince of Orange was 
 crowned as William I, king of the Netherlands. By 
 the treaty of London in 18 14, Belgium and Holland 
 had been united into one kingdom, to be known as the 
 Netherlands. During the first fifteen years of his life, 
 therefore, Damen was technically a Netherlander. For 
 many vital reasons this union of the two countries 
 was impossible, and in 1830 the Belgians revolted and 
 set up an independent state, a movement that resulted 
 well for both kingdoms. 
 
 The French Revolution had spent itself by the year 
 of Damen's birth, but the waters of confusion still 
 rose all over Europe. Napoleon's stupid idea that he 
 could Napoleonize the world had torn into the very 
 roots of the nations who were fighting for their lives. 
 For almost a generation, beginning with the Terror, 
 war had been the daily bread of Europe. In 181 5, the 
 final crash was preparing in Napoleon's last campaign 
 out of Elba, and three months after, Napoleon was 
 finally defeated at Waterloo. Thus, after centuries of 
 bitter struggles, war within and without, a breathing 
 space of quiet was given to Holland. Damen's early 
 boyhood in Brabant was passed during that period of 
 comparative peace. 
 
 The country he lived in is one that breathes of peace. 
 Brabant is not as picturesque as the Dutch lowlands, 
 has no striking characteristics that cause the traveler 
 to pause for something that he has not seen before. It 
 is a familiar scene throughout, but a refreshing one, 
 with its woods, its broken undergrowth, its little vil- 
 lages dropped here and there informally, and every 
 turn offering to the eye some pleasing vista, some un- 
 disturbed, drowsy nook, which a painter might eagerly 
 seize upon as his ideal of dreamy contentment — a 
 'homey' country all through, such as the stifled city- 
 dweller imagines to himself when he would escape from 
 his canyoned streets into a holiday land where he can 
 
14 Arnold Damen, SJ. 
 
 take simple, cheerful thoughts out into the clear sun 
 and send them irresponsibly chasing after the birds 
 and butterflies. No healthier spot could be chosen for 
 a young boy to grow up in, body and soul. Damen's 
 sturdy physique and his simple, evenly balanced char- 
 acter owed much to the advantages of these early sur- 
 roundings. 
 
 Sleepily serene as the place seems, romance walks 
 at hand, none the less. Damen's town of Leur is but 
 five miles from the famous city of Breda, that dates 
 back to the eleventh century. From 1534 to the be- 
 ginning of the nineteenth century Breda might be 
 offered as a sample of the political and the war atmos- 
 phere of Holland. The dramatic series of the captures 
 and recaptures of Breda makes an unusual chapter in 
 history. The Spaniards took it in 1581. Nine years 
 after, Maurice of Nassau retook it by a daring strat- 
 egy, wherein sixty-eight men, hidden under turf in 
 a peat-boat, got into the town and drove the Spaniards 
 out. The spot where the peat-boat lay is pointed out to 
 this day as the Spaniards' Hole. In 1625, after a ten 
 months' siege, the Spaniards recaptured Breda and they 
 felt so good after it that Velasquez celebrated the event 
 in one of his greatest paintings, Las Lanzas, known 
 also as the 'Surrender of Breda.' During the French 
 wars the town was taken and retaken twice between 
 1793 and 1 81 3. Charles II, king of England, lived 
 at Breda during his exile, and William of Orange, an- 
 other of England's kings, built a fine castle here. 
 
 Rambling across this lotus land today, one would not 
 easily suppose that here romance had for centuries 
 gone galloping up and down the lists in a constant suc- 
 cession of tourneys. It seems just as unlikely a com- 
 bination as that of the Dutchman sitting trancelike by 
 his fire, slowly smoking his long pipe, and the same 
 Dutchman out at sea with his fleet, chasing all the other 
 fleets into harbor. This union of placidity and energy 
 
The Tath to a Vocation i$ 
 
 was what made the Hollander a hard fighter at home 
 and a successful colonist abroad. If we add the super- 
 natural to a character of this kind, we can expect par- 
 allel results in its devotionto God's cause, a soul that 
 will master itself thoroughly and, after that, carry 
 the word of God abroad and plant it in other lands. 
 Through his boyhood, Damen insensibly absorbed 
 both the peace and the romance of Brabant, as his 
 after life fully reveals. His parents saw to it that the 
 grace of God, also, would surround and penetrate him. 
 In spite of the wreckage of all education left in the 
 wake of the Napoleonic wars, the parish school at 
 Leur still managed to function, and here young Ar- 
 nold spent his earliest school years. During this time 
 he must have shown signs of a vocation to the priest- 
 hood. We are told that from his early boyhood he 
 manifested an unusual devotion to the Blessed Vir- 
 gin, and made many pilgrimages to her famous shrine 
 at Bois-le-Duc. His parents observed the steady devel- 
 opment of his character and, after his schooling at 
 Leur, instead of his going to work as most of the boys 
 of that day had to do, they sent him to Belgium, to the 
 classical college at Turnhout. This was a college 
 founded and conducted by M. Pierre Jean de Nef, who 
 turned an ample fortune and distinguished attainments 
 to the training of young men for the priesthood, with 
 the special purpose of sending them to the foreign 
 missions. De Nef directed, supported and taught in the 
 school and his noble work was blest. Hundreds of 
 priests went to the missions from the college of Turn- 
 hout. It was always M. de Nef 's idea to secure a teach- 
 ing Order to staff his college, but the disorganized 
 condition of things prevented this until a few years 
 before his death, when he placed the school under the 
 direction of the Jesuits. In Arnold Damen's time the 
 school numbered about one hundred, all day-scholars. 
 After that the Jesuits made it a boarding school and 
 
1 6 ^Arnold Teamen, S.J. 
 
 attached to it an apostolic college, the number of stu- 
 dents increasing to more than three hundred. Damen 
 studied well while here, as his standing shows. In 1836 
 as a sophomore he was sixth in a class of twenty, and 
 the following year as a junior he was seventh among 
 nineteen. 
 
 By this time he had arrived at manhood and was 
 considering what special work of the priesthood he 
 would enter and what part of the world he would se- 
 lect as his destined field. His final decision came as a 
 result of a visit paid to the school by the American 
 Indian missionary, the Jesuit Father De Smet, who 
 had been in Europe since 1833. No one better than 
 De Smet could tell of the needs of America and of 
 its great field for the spread of the faith. In a series 
 of talks he told the boys about the country across the 
 sea — immigrants swarming in at its eastern coast, a 
 continual pouring of the population toward the West, 
 and, out beyond the borders of civilization, the Indians 
 roaming the far prairies where no white man's foot 
 had as yet trod. All these needed spiritual help and a 
 special type of man to provide it. Settling a country 
 means perpetual movement from place to place; new- 
 comers seeking their first homes, oldtimers hearing 
 of more beautiful and fertile spots and voyaging in 
 search of them, and the Indians, naturally nomadic, 
 never at rest unless in motion. The spirit of adventure, 
 of discovery was abroad. Daring young pioneers were 
 thrilling to penetrate all over the mysterious West. 
 Hunters, trappers, lovers of the open life, fled before 
 the thickening population out to the lonely woods and 
 plains, where they lived solitary, or in small groups. 
 Farmers from the stony-soiled eastern states heard 
 of the rich lands waiting for them, packed their house- 
 hold goods and their families into wagons and started 
 westward. The great money hunt was on as well. 
 Traders were exploring every nook and corner for 
 
like Tath to a Vocation 17 
 
 the chance of barter. A fever of movement possessed 
 the people. Opportunity hid just over the next hill, just 
 beyond the next turn of the river, and they chased it as 
 a lad chases butterflies. And beyond it all, in the great 
 land of wolves and mountain lions and buffaloes, wan- 
 dered the tribes of red men, worshiping false gods, 
 sunk in superstition, but sunk no deeper perhaps than 
 multitudes of white men worshiping the golden calf. 
 Within the cities, too, were the beginnings of that 
 restlessness and speed that have come to characterize 
 the American modern metropolis. There was much stir- 
 ring about in the towns; business shifted from point 
 to point; manufactories sprung up, and laborers fol- 
 lowed wherever the best chances seemed to lie, freely 
 migrating from city to city. The whole country was 
 in a more or less fluid state, dizzy with the whirl of 
 opportunity and feverishly following one mirage after 
 another. 
 
 Clearly, anyone who chose this field to labor in as 
 a priest, had plenty of work cut out for him. Whether 
 he went among the red men or the white, he had the 
 same fundamental difficulties; namely, first to find his 
 flock and then to hold it together. And where the no- 
 madic spirit prevailed of going somewhere else to get 
 something else, there was nothing to be expected but 
 a dragging of anchors. The priest who would suc- 
 cessfully shepherd this people had to be all things to 
 all men. He must combine the stolid spiritual tenacity 
 of the recluse with the holiday gayety of the adven- 
 turer. With everyone about him in constant motion, 
 he must keep in motion, too. And the movement of 
 the multitude was by no means regimental, with the 
 priest merely keeping step as their chaplain. Each in- 
 dividual chose his own direction and his own ter- 
 minus and made for it with every ounce of speed 
 he possessed, catch him if you can. Not the quiet, con- 
 fined, settled European town life, where age-old custom 
 
1 8 ^Arnold Teamen, S.J. 
 
 could enable one to walk down the street blindfolded 
 and greet one's old familiars at a certain spot and hour, 
 because they must be there. This new country was a 
 huge playground full of children let loose from the 
 crowded classroom and running about in every sort of 
 tangle after whatever their new-born fancy chose. 
 Plenty of room here for everybody, all paths open, the 
 pent-up restraints of centuries unloosed, millions of 
 rainbows and a pot of gold at the foot of each. Today, 
 it is true, we still play at this game, but we are more 
 polished at it. We jump for the golden apple with 
 more of a nonchalant and natural manner. We are not 
 so naive as were the forty-niners. 
 
 For a priest, this environment called for high apos- 
 tolic qualities. He had to be with this movement, at 
 its center and at every point besides, out to the cir- 
 cumference. He had to hold fast to the faith himself, 
 as the core of his own life, and he had to keep each 
 soul of his flock in touch with that faith. He must, 
 therefore, have the sturdy homelike virtues of pa- 
 tience, kindness, simplicity. He must be affable, un- 
 wearied, never bored, straightforward and square. He 
 must have romance in his soul also, the romance of 
 the Gospel, the final gifts that St. Paul enumerates in 
 his eulogy of charity. He must believe all things, 
 hope all things, endure all things. In the midst of toil, 
 discouragements and disappointments, delays and op- 
 positions, he must keep steadily to his work in all its 
 details, with no idea of surrender. All this implies 
 physical gifts of strength, a driving power of body, a 
 vivacity and energy that will sag under no strain, but 
 will come up fresh for each new task that besets it. 
 
 This was the talk that Father De Smet gave young 
 Damen at Turnhout, and Damen rose to it. How well 
 De Smet gauged his man, after events reveal. The 
 young student held in the bud the very qualities needed 
 for the work — the combination of physical strength, 
 
The Tath to a Vocation 19 
 
 quiet determination of natural character, and the in- 
 nate Dutch spirit of romance, that, turned to commer- 
 cial ends, would have made him a wealthy trader, a 
 celebrated explorer or colonist. Touched with the fire 
 of the supernatural, it lifted him to be a great mis- 
 sionary for souls. 
 
 Damen went to M. de Nef, the superior of the 
 school, and offered himself as a candidate for the 
 Jesuit missions in America. M. de Nef had the unusual 
 privilege of receiving applicants for the Society of 
 Jesus, though himself not a member of the Order. His 
 approval of Damen was ratified by the superiors of 
 the Society, and Damen went to his home in Leur to 
 tell his father and mother of his choice. A young man 
 named Adrian Hendrickx had already applied as a 
 Brother for the Missouri Mission and the two waited 
 for a year in Holland until Father De Smet's work in 
 Europe was finished. Meantime De Smet had gathered 
 others for the missions — Father John Gleizal of 
 France, who entered the Jesuits as a priest, Francis 
 D'Hoop, a Belgian, and Father David Duparque, who 
 was to join the diocese of Louisville, in Kentucky. 
 They received final word to be prepared to sail with 
 Father De Smet from Havre in October, 1837. They 
 journeyed by stage through France by way of Paris 
 to Havre. Arrived there, they found Father De Smet 
 down with an attack of sickness so serious that the 
 doctor forbade him to sail. Five days passed and 
 he was not better. The day of departure arrived, the 
 ship weighed anchor and sailed with the five men 
 minus their leader. Whatever they felt about the sit- 
 uation, and it must have been sufficiently depressing, 
 they were not more worried than Father De Smet. For 
 him, it finally got beyond bearing and he solved the 
 difficulty by cutting the knot. He eluded the doctor, 
 made his way to the harbor, chartered a swift boat, 
 overtook the departing ship and climbed aboard, to 
 
20 Arnold T)amen } S.J. 
 
 the equal amazement and joy of his companions. The 
 sea voyage restored his health. In twelve days, after 
 an unusually swift and tranquil passage, they landed at 
 New York. 
 
 The journey from New York to St. Louis, a thou- 
 sand miles by airline, was not what we can easily make 
 it today, a pleasure jaunt. A hundred years ago the 
 heavy wagon was the only Pullman possible over roads 
 that simply made themselves, whenever there were any 
 roads at all. We have no record of Damen's journey, 
 but it could not have been much more comfortable 
 than De Smet's from the Chesapeake to the Missis- 
 sippi, made only fourteen years before. That pioneer 
 group carried their movables in wagons and went them- 
 selves on foot to Wheeling on the Ohio, floated on 
 flatboats to Shawneetown in Illinois and walked the 
 remaining distance to St. Louis. We may easily sup- 
 pose that a considerable part of Damen's travel was 
 done pedibus apostolorum over every condition of road 
 and through every variety of weather. None the worse 
 for their hardships, the party arrived safely in St. 
 Louis and went at once to Florissant, Missouri, to 
 begin their formal training as novices, on November 
 22, 1837. 
 
 A curious sequence of cause and effect comes to the 
 surface here in connection with the work of Father 
 Damen, showing how the best-laid plans of mice and 
 men can go astray. It looks like a non sequitur to say 
 that the French Revolution was the original founder 
 of the great Holy Family parish in Chicago and the 
 ultimate prime mover of all Father Damen's mission 
 work all over the United States. But it is the fact 
 The French Directoire, in its campaign against Cathol- 
 icism, hunted Father Charles Nerinckx out of Europe. 
 He located in Kentucky and became its famous mis- 
 sionary. Later he went back to Europe to get recruits 
 
The Tath to a Vocation 21 
 
 for the work here. Nerinckx was not a Jesuit him- 
 self, but he brought De Smet back to America for 
 the Society in 1823. And De Smet in turn went to 
 Europe and brought back Damen. The Revolution 
 builded better than it knew. 
 
CHAPTER* IV 
 
 HIS NEW HOME 
 
 THE village of Florissant lies some fifteen miles 
 from St. Louis and a few miles from the Mis- 
 souri River, in the Florissant Valley, a spot that for 
 beauty and fertility answers to its name. It is one of 
 the oldest inhabited places in the Mississippi region, 
 as old places go in a young country. Politically it had 
 swung from French to Spanish to French and finally 
 to United States possession within forty years. But 
 through all its changes, the inhabitants were of French 
 descent. As an inland town, remote from the facilities 
 of transportation that make for commercial success, 
 Florissant was destined never to grow and it remains 
 today almost as quiet a place as when young Damen 
 first saw it nearly a hundred years ago. Bishop Du 
 Bourg had given several hundred acres of this valley 
 land to the Jesuits, and here they established the sec- 
 ond novitiate of the Society in the United States. 
 
 In his extremely interesting and accurate Saint Fer- 
 dinand de Florissant, The Story of an Ancient Par- 
 ish, Father Garraghan has given us a description of 
 the Florissant Valley as it is today, unchanged in all 
 essentials from the days when the Jesuits first saw it. 
 
 On either side the horizon is broken by a line of gently 
 sloping hills, the land between being quite level to the 
 eye so as to suggest the bed of a prehistoric lake. So in- 
 deed did it appear to Bradbury, the naturalist, who passed 
 along here in 1836. The soil is fertile to a degree, being 
 rich, heavy loam of an 'inky blackness/ as pictured by 
 Timothy Flint, the Congregationalist clergyman, who in 
 
 22 
 
His &(ew Home 23 
 
 the twenties of the last century wrote up the agricul- 
 tural possibilities of Missouri for the benefit of Eastern 
 readers. If the visit be on the eve of harvest time a great 
 panoramic stretch of rural charms unfolds itself to the 
 eye. Fields of ripened oats and timothy, more often of 
 brightly golden wheat, wave gently in the soft June air — 
 fields, too, of the amplest dimensions, running back from 
 the roadside to the hillocks on either flank. It matters not 
 that the soil has been tilled for a century and a quarter ; 
 it still yields copiously of its stored-up wealth even to 
 the least industrious of farmers. Such is the Florissant 
 Valley, in extent some two by twelve miles, Florissant 
 being French for 'blooming' or 'flourishing/ the apt name 
 which the early Creole inhabitants found from the be- 
 ginning for this genuine garden-spot of Missouri. 
 
 . Charming as was this location of the Jesuit noviti- 
 ate, we still remember that idyllic scenery, while un- 
 doubtedly nourishing to the soul, falls considerably 
 short of feeding, clothing and housing the body. 
 Golden harvests of real wheat do not rise up under 
 the poet's wand, but over the plowman's furrow. The 
 first thing the little community at Florissant had to 
 face was the problem of living. The only practicable 
 way of doing this was to get it out of the ground. And 
 that meant they had to work. They were poor and, 
 while they could hire some help, much remained that 
 they themselves must do. 
 
 The standard novitiate training is largely an indoor 
 process, mental and physical. Much meditation, spir- 
 itual reading, self -study, with enough outdoor exercise 
 to preserve the balance of health. But when fields must 
 be plowed and corn sown and harvests reaped and 
 wood cut for fires, another standard of training must 
 perforce prevail. All this Arnold Damen and his com- 
 panions had to do, and their after lives reveal that they 
 managed to combine with it the meditative training as 
 well. Wisdom builds her own house, and the wise man 
 when put to it, will read as much from the furrows of 
 
24 ^Arnold Damen, SJ. 
 
 a plow as from the pages of a book; will gather in 
 the grain and meanwhile plan for his future spiritual 
 harvest; will find tongues in trees, books in the run- 
 ning brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every- 
 thing. These novices carried their spiritual life with 
 them into the fields and woods whenever necessity 
 called them there, just as in later years they sustained 
 it through all the distractions of their missionary years 
 in the priesthood. 
 
 So we see them putting in the corn, tying up the 
 vines, planting their orchards, their vegetable garden, 
 hewers of wood and drawers of water, singing hymns 
 of praise to God and, when their work was done, say- 
 ing their Rosary together on their road homeward. 
 
 In spite of all the outdoor claims upon them, it 
 must not be supposed that they had no time for se- 
 cluded study. Their day then would be the equivalent 
 of two days now in a normal man's schedule. They 
 rose at half past four, retired at a little after nine. 
 With each day perfectly mapped ahead, we can easily 
 surmise how little waste time slipped through their 
 fingers and how much orderly work they could pack 
 away in those seventeen hours. And with each one help- 
 ing the other as they went along, reducing the wear 
 of friction to a minimum, they successfully solved the 
 puzzling problem of how to run a farm and go to 
 school at the same time. 
 
 Many of them had to learn the English language. 
 Damen found this quite difficult at the start, though 
 his facile use of it in after years would not suggest 
 that. It is remarkable, in fact, how thoroughly these 
 pioneers mastered the English idiom, literary as well 
 as colloquial, with an accuracy of pronunciation, too, 
 that eliminated brogue almost completely. 
 
 Their housing was primitive. The pile of modern 
 buildings that today occupy the old site of the noviti- 
 ate, the splendid chapel, commodious study and dining 
 
His C^(ew Home %$ 
 
 halls, the gardens and recreation grounds, were in 
 those days merely a few log cabins in a wilderness. 
 A picture of the place in 1847, ten years after Da- 
 men's time, shows us two buildings joined L-fashion, 
 suggesting rather a corn-crib than a house. They had 
 shelter, and very little more. 
 
 We have been able to discover but one letter writ- 
 ten by Damen to his home and this was sent from 
 Florissant during his novitiate. It is probable that he 
 did not write many letters to Holland after he left. 
 Later on in life he regretted that he had not done 
 more. Brother Thomas Kelly, S.J., who celebrated his 
 golden jubilee as a Jesuit a few years ago, was one 
 of Damen's recruits to the Society as the result of a 
 mission in Brooklyn in the 'seventies. When he was 
 leaving for the novitiate, he tells us, Father Damen ad- 
 vised him to write home whenever he could, adding, 
 Tt is one of the things I regret, now that it is too late, 
 that I did not write to my people oftener.' 
 
 The letter we have is from the Godsdienstvriend, 
 literally the 'Friend of Religion/ a periodical similar 
 to our Ave Maria. Evidently the editor, in obtaining 
 the letter from the family of Damen, believed that his 
 readers were interested in what the Dutch missionaries 
 were doing in America. It is headed, 'An Extract from 
 a Letter of Mr. A. Damen, of the Novitiate S.J. in 
 N. America. ' 
 
 A.M.D.G. 
 
 St. Stanislaus . . . 1839 
 
 Dear Parents, Brothers and Sisters: 
 
 In my last letter I had decided not to write to you 
 again until I had received an answer. However, since 
 no missionaries arrived this year from Europe, I consider 
 it my duty to gratify your great desire. Possibly I would 
 not be so slow in my correspondence were it not that I 
 have almost forgotten my mother tongue. It is a real task 
 
26 ^Arnold Damm, 8. J. 
 
 for me to write in Dutch. I have constantly to consult the 
 dictionary, or to ask Brother Hendriks and Carissimus 
 D'Hoop for words that will express my ideas. You must 
 not therefore be astonished if I use an English or a 
 French word now and then. At times I can't tell whether 
 the word I am using is good Dutch. 
 
 I am not going to say anything about bodily things, 
 for a religious, especially a companion of Jesus Christ, 
 must live as though he had no body. All his thoughts, 
 words and deeds should be directed toward a single end, 
 namely, God. 
 
 In my last I mentioned that several 'nations' (tribes or 
 settlements) have frequently begged our Superior to send 
 them some of our Fathers. At length he had the pleasure 
 of gratifying the desire of two of those 'nations/ His 
 Reverence has sent Father Helias and Father Buschots 
 to Jefferson. Their parish or mission extends over 150 
 miles and consists of a mixture of Germans and French- 
 men, with a sprinkling of Irish and Americans. The bulk 
 are Germans and French. However, the Irish are quite 
 numerous, as appears from the fact that 600 Irish were 
 present at a procession recently held by the Fathers. The 
 Fathers have little trouble in practicing the Evangelical 
 Counsels. They have no lay Brother, no servant. (I do 
 not mean a housekeeper, for you know religious have no 
 female servants.) They have no furniture. When they 
 go to visit their parishes they must carry all the requisites 
 for Mass with them. The Mass is said in a house. The 
 only church is in the village where they reside. 
 
 The other mission established by Fr. Superior is among 
 the Indians, 1300 miles distant from here. It is a poor 
 tribe [Pottawatomies] which has for a long time begged 
 for one or two of our Fathers. Fr. Superior has sent 
 them Fr. De Smet (who came last year with us from 
 Europe) and Fr. Verreydt, a Belgian, and a Spanish lay 
 Brother. Thus we have at present four priests and two 
 Brothers among the Indians. 
 
 These missions seem to promise well. Let me tell you 
 something about them that may be of interest to you. I 
 get my information from the letters of Father De Smet. 
 In his first letter he describes his journey and, among 
 
His ${ew Home 27 
 
 other things, he mentions coming across a young Indian 
 who is a former student of our college and is at present 
 Chief of his tribe. He showed himself very affectionate 
 and friendly toward Fr. De Smet and promised to build 
 him a chapel, on condition that he would draw a few 
 French families to the neighborhood. 
 
 One day as Fr. De Smet was walking along the river 
 bank a black man accosted him. He told Father that he 
 took him for a Catholic priest and asked him if he was 
 right. Upon Fr. De Smet assuring him that he was a 
 priest, the man proceeded to make a general Confession 
 with great piety and devotion, shedding tears of re- 
 pentance for having offended God's infinite goodness and 
 majesty; tears, too, of joy because it was so many years 
 since he had seen a priest. Being 88 years old, the man 
 suspected that it would be his last Confession. 
 
 Bidding the old man adieu, Fr. De Smet traveled on 
 and came upon another tribe whose Chief had also studied 
 at our college, and who was very anxious to have one or 
 two of our Fathers to come and live among them. 
 
 Later Fr. De Smet discovered a fourth tribe, known as 
 the Pawnees, who live underground. A Presbyterian min- 
 ister had offered himself to come and live among them. 
 They replied that they did not want a devil to dwell in 
 their tribe, and that they would take measures to prevent 
 him from settling there. You see, these poor Indians are 
 firmly convinced that all heretical ministers bring the 
 devil with them. They are very eager for one of our 
 Fathers. It would seem that this tribe is the most cruel. 
 A short time ago they burned a girl alive. They number 
 some 20,000. 
 
 On March 31st, Frs. De Smet and Verreydt, with a 
 Spanish lay Brother, arrived among the Pottawatomies, 
 which tribe they are to evangelize. Some 1,200 Indians, 
 dressed in their best costumes, their faces painted in the 
 latest fashion, were waiting impatiently for the steamer 
 on which they were to come. They began their mission 
 by teaching them the Christian doctrine. For although a 
 few among the tribe have been baptized by Mr. Richard, 
 a priest who knows the prayers in their tongue and who 
 visits them once every two years, yet they are ignorant 
 
28 ^Arnold T)amen> SJ. 
 
 of Christian doctrine. They do not even know how to 
 bless themselves. Fr. De Smet tells us that he has had 
 about twenty-six baptisms, that the children are good and 
 docile, that this tribe has no word in their vocabulary 
 for cursing and swearing except the word 'dog/ 'Dog' 
 is their biggest curse word. He mentions, too, that the 
 Chief of the tribe is very generous, especially toward 
 our Fathers. He offered them four log cabins for their 
 homes and promised to build them a chapel. On Corpus 
 Christi the foundation was laid for the chapel and the 
 Cross was placed on it. Whatever time Fr. De Smet can 
 spare from religious services he spends as carpenter, mak- 
 ing doors, windows and pews for the chapel. They have 
 planned to go once a week and preach among another 
 tribe with the help of an interpreter. 
 
 To give you an idea of the progress that is being 
 made by our holy religion among the Americans, our Rt. 
 Rev. Bishop told that in the course of last year he has 
 built 20 new churches for Catholics in Missouri alone — 
 that's the State we live in. This year 19 are being built. 
 Also that more than 300 heretics have sworn off their 
 errors and have returned to the bosom of the true Church, 
 this not counting the converts among the Indians. His 
 Lordship told us also that he had in his diocese 10,000 
 to 12,000 Catholics who were without priests to minister 
 to them. 
 
 The amount of good that's being done by missions is 
 incredible. For here in America, as in Europe, there are 
 numberless poor sinners hardened in wickedness, for 
 whose conversion nothing is more effective than a mission 
 or spiritual retreat. However, here one can, so to speak, 
 wink at their disorderly lives, in view of their ignorance 
 and the lack of priests among them. For indeed how can 
 one look for fruits from a soil that is untilled — a soil 
 that has never received the seed of the Gospel or, if re- 
 ceived, the seed has been dried up, not sprinkled with 
 the dew of Christian teaching? This is the sad experience 
 of this country. How many there arc who see a priest 
 but once a year ! How many have been baptized but never 
 instructed ! There is reason therefore to pardon their 
 disorderly lives; and what should still more move us to 
 
His O^ew Home 29 
 
 tenderness and pity for these poor people is the fact thaU 
 they persist in begging for priests. Would to God that 
 the good to be accomplished here, and the scarcity of 
 priests were realized in the seminaries of Europe! Then^, 
 many would break the miserable ties that bind them to , ; 
 their parents, their friends and country; many would bid. 
 a permanent farewell to all that keeps them chained,, 
 to their country and hinders them from answering,, 
 God's call. 
 
 I have not many things to tell about our missions 
 among the 'Guikapoes' [Kickapoos], a savage tribe anjqng, 
 whom two of our priests, namely Frs. Hoecken and 
 Ysvogels (both from the seminary of Bois-le-Duc) and 
 a Belgian lay Brother are working. This mission seems,, 
 to be making slow progress, although several baptisms, 
 have taken place and a number of children, having been 
 cleansed from original sin by the Sacrament of Baptism,, 
 have died in the Lord, and consequently are praying in 
 heaven for the conversion of their parents. The reason 
 of their slow advance is that the Chief of the tribe gets 
 1,500 francs from the Protestants as a bribe to, make him 
 favor their preachers and their mission. Yet, in spite of 
 all this, in spite of their gifts and the threats of, the Chief, 
 they make no progress. Not so long ago the Chief began 
 to play a rather strange role, but to his shame and his 
 hurt. He had bribed a man, a kind of lawyer or adviser 
 among the Indians, with a sum of money. This fellow 
 was to feign death. Then the Chief would come and raise 
 him from the dead through the power of the Protestant 
 religion a la Calvin. The lawyer had practiced his part 
 well. He died and the Chief brought hkn.back to life. 
 Then he started telling the Indians that he had been in 
 heaven, mentioning all the wonderful things he had seen, 
 and so on. But here came the end of his cheating and the 
 beginning of his shame. Fr. Hoecken, having been noti- 
 fied of what was going on among the tribe, sent word to 
 the lawyer to come and see him. He did not dare to ignore 
 Fr. Hoecken's summons and in an assembly of the tribe 
 the Father questioned him concerning what he had heard 
 and observed there. The poor lawyer, expecting to fool 
 the Father as he had the Indians, spoJse..so rapidly and, 
 
30 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 so stupidly that he contradicted himself and denied what 
 he had said at the start. 
 
 Then the Father in a serious tone of authority said 
 to him : 'It is clear that you are a humbug and a fraud. 
 It is clear that what you have told about heaven are your 
 own inventions. I want you to confess before these people 
 that what you have told us are lies. Unless you do this I 
 am going to call down upon you the punishment of the 
 Great Spirit/ 
 
 The lawyer, frightened by these threats and fearing the 
 wrath of the Great Spirit, confessed his deceit. Father 
 Hoecken, however, was not satisfied. 'I must insist/ he 
 said to the lawyer, 'that for three Sundays you will come 
 to Mass and declare before the congregation that your 
 death and resurrection was a lie. Unless you comply 
 with my command I shall ask the Great Spirit to chastise 
 you/ The man promised to do what the Father had com- 
 manded and he was very punctual in carrying out his 
 promise. 
 
 I mentioned just now that Fr. Hoecken has Fr. Ysvo- 
 gels for his companion. This arrangement has been 
 changed. Fr. Aelen has received a letter telling him that 
 Fr. Hoecken lives now at a distance of some 16 miles 
 from Fr. Ysvogels. He is working there among a tribe 
 that numbers 800 Catholics. He lives in real poverty. He 
 has no lay Brother with him, has no church nor house. 
 A poor tent made of buffalo skins serves him for both 
 house and church. 
 
 I could fill a book if I were to write all particulars. 
 It is such a task to express myself in my mother tongue. 
 However, I must say something about our mission among 
 the Pottawatomies. According to several reports of Fr. 
 De Smet, he has in the space of six months baptized 118. 
 This shows us what progress our holy religion is making 
 there. He writes us also that two chiefs of a tribe some 
 two thousand strong came to visit him accompanied by 
 40 soldiers. These people all showed great kindness 
 toward the Fathers and asked them to smoke the calumet, 
 or pipe of peace, with them. Father De Smet showed the 
 chiefs the chapel. They seemed to be very interested in 
 the explanation the Father gave them of the Cross, the 
 
His $s(ew Home 31 
 
 altar and a few pictures representing Our Lord's pas- 
 sion. They begged him to come and pay them a visit and 
 made him a present of a tobacco bag made of the skin of 
 a beaver. In his turn the Father presented them with a 
 rosary and a brass crucifix, which they accepted with 
 thanks, kissing it and putting it about their neck. On 
 taking leave of the Fathers, they embraced them with the 
 greatest affection. 
 
 To form an idea of an Indian village, imagine a large 
 number of cabins and tents, all made of the bark of trees, 
 of buffalo hides, of roughly woven linen, of twig and 
 rush-woven mats, all dirty-looking and making a terrible 
 sight, some large, some small, all made in different fash- 
 ions, placed at haphazard without plan. . . . 
 
 Would to God that I were able to give you an idea of 
 the great happiness which I here enjoy! But this is im- 
 possible. No one but he who experiences it can under- 
 stand how happy we are. Give unceasing thanks to God, 
 for my happiness is unspeakable. 
 
 I remain respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient son, 
 
 A. Damen, 
 Novice of the Society of Jesus, 
 
 Although this letter tells us very little about Floris- 
 sant, it does tell us much about Damen. It is an un- 
 usually mature letter for a novice. Save for the solemn 
 announcement to his parents that he will write noth- 
 ing to them of 'bodily things,' there is no preachifying 
 in the letter, a favorite novice attitude. He states, too, 
 and rather bluntly, that he is rapidly losing his mother 
 tongue, without seeming to consider that it might be 
 something not altogether pleasant for his parents to 
 hear. They might imagine that after forgetting his 
 mother tongue, he would soon perhaps be forgetting 
 them. But outside of these defects, the whole letter 
 foreshadows the future Damen. The missionary spirit 
 is strong in him. He seems to lean decidedly to life 
 among the Indians. He is fascinated with the thought 
 
32 ^Arnold "Damen, SJ. 
 
 of converting entire tribes. He looks ahead in terms 
 of the whole of America and already craves for more 
 workers to evangelize the nation. One can sense his re- 
 strained impatience to be out and doing. He sees the 
 need of men for the whites as well as for the Indians, 
 not realizing that his own missions to the whites are 
 to have much to do with the organization of the Church 
 in the United States. He appreciates all the hardships 
 of the life ahead, but shows no signs of timidity or 
 shirking. On the contrary, his tone is one of confident 
 eagerness, virile and unafraid. The offhand manner 
 in which he speaks of forgetting his native tongue 
 shows how thoroughly he was beginning to identify 
 himself with his adopted country, and he is entirely and 
 unaffectedly happy in the vision he sees before him. All 
 these characteristics develop and intensify in him with 
 the years. 
 
 After two years Arnold Damen made his first vows, 
 thereby becoming a recognized member of the Jesuits. 
 He remained at Florissant, however, for two years 
 more, employed in a steady routine of study, reviewing 
 his classics, advancing his English, preparing for teach- 
 ing. His spiritual life interwove with his study all 
 through. Mass every day, frequent Communion, medi- 
 tation and spiritual reading. These were to be part of 
 his daily duty all his life. Then he was sent to St. Louis 
 to teach. 
 
 Here the Jesuits had a growing college for both day 
 and boarding students, the latter coming mostly from 
 the South and from Latin America. This was Da- 
 men's first direct contact with the medley of Amer- 
 ican life. 
 
 There is a vague tradition, for which we can dis- 
 cover no documentary evidence, that Damen was not 
 a success in teaching. If this is so, it cannot be for the 
 reason that he did not work at it. It is impossible to 
 imagine him going into anything without energy. It 
 
His ${ew Home 33 
 
 is difficult, also, to suppose that he was not clear and 
 definite in his method. His sermons, later, are models 
 of clarity ; his business organizing in after years shows 
 a natural instinct for definiteness. It was very probably 
 the case that he found trouble in adjusting himself to 
 the temperament of the American boy. I believe that no 
 one can train a type of boy he has not grown up with. 
 Damen grew up with American life from the age of 
 twenty-three, but he never had a chance to be an Amer- 
 ican boy. There was his handicap. He got along per- 
 fectly with men, because he grew up with them and 
 caught their characteristics at first hand. The Dutch 
 boy he knew intimately; but all his experience of the 
 American boy was, so to say, at second hand. He was 
 already outside the magic ring of boyhood when he 
 first met American boyhood, and he could never hope 
 to capture its essential flavor. After dreamy old Bra- 
 bant and placid Florissant, the sudden plunge into the 
 electric maelstrom of American youth must have given 
 him something of a shock. Brabant and Florissant were 
 scarcely the atmosphere to prepare one for American 
 boy life in the 'forties, with the call of the open surg- 
 ing in its blood and the wild West beckoning only a 
 few miles away. 
 
 Yet again, in the light of what we certainly do know 
 about Damen, it is hard to see him, under whatever 
 difficulties of controlling a new type of character, as 
 not managing his classes even though he did not under- 
 stand them thoroughly. Only a few years later we 
 find him managing every variety of people in the most 
 businesslike American fashion, with absolute success. 
 If it be true, then, as the tradition has it, that Damen 
 did not hit it off with boys, the only answer is, that 
 boys, like Nature, are wonderful. 
 
 On the other hand, there seems to be indirect evi- 
 dence, at least, that Damen did good work as a teacher. 
 During his regency, complaints were sent to the Gen- 
 
34 ^Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 eral, Father Roothaan, that the scholastics in St. Louis 
 were too much engaged in work outside their sphere 
 of duty. Their studies and their spiritual life, it was 
 alleged, were seriously interfered with. The occasion 
 for the complaint arose from the effort made by the 
 college to build additional schoolrooms for city boys 
 who wished to attend school, but who could not be 
 accommodated for lack of space. The college had no 
 money, and the boys either had to go to distinctly 
 Protestant schools, or go without. In his letter of 
 reply to the General, Father Verhaegan, the Vice-Pro- 
 vincial, writes as follows on the nineteenth of July, 
 1843: 
 
 This criticism, which your Paternity states in general 
 terms, can be applied to only one man here, and scarcely 
 applied, at that; or if so, only for a short period. There 
 was question of preparing schoolrooms for city students. 
 The college was unable to meet the expense. Meantime, 
 the boys, to the number of more than two hundred, were 
 attending Protestant schools at the risk of losing faith 
 and morals. Kindling with pious zeal, Mr. Damen offered 
 his services to complete the work. He begged alms from 
 our citizens ; and when others had no heart for the work, 
 he finished it up without any expense whatever to the 
 college. 
 
 Some of the contributors gave not money, but labor. 
 So Damen had to deal at times with carpenters and other 
 workmen to give them directions. But whatever he did 
 was done with the approval of Father Rector. 
 
 This young man, who by his industry has rescued some 
 three hundred boys from irreligious schools, or from the 
 streets, to train them up in letters and religion, seems to 
 me to be deserving of the highest praise. 
 
 From which it seems logical to conclude that for an 
 unsuccessful teacher, Damen took rather a consider- 
 able interest in schoolrooms. 
 
 In any event, looking backward over his life, it was 
 
His 3{ew Home 35 
 
 fortunate for the Catholic Church that Damen was 
 not assigned to be a teacher in the schools. Providence 
 had assigned him to a wider field, and with his careful 
 obedience to divine guidance, he was eventually des- 
 tined to take up a work, only a small part of which 
 would be the founding of a future university. 
 
 His studies went on and he was ordained priest in 
 1844, m his twenty-ninth year. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 EARLY YEARS IN THE PRIESTHOOD 
 
 FATHER DAMEN had passed through the as- 
 signed stages of preparation for his life work and 
 was facing a future that he himself saw only in the 
 faintest outline. He had prayed much. His intense 
 devotion to the Blessed Virgin, ripening since early 
 childhood, was, by this time, matured and settled in 
 his life. He had meditated profoundly and sensibly, 
 planning his life so as to have all its energies radiate 
 from a central core of obedience. This will appear as 
 we see him in later action. He had definitely cut himself 
 off from his home and country and had set himself to 
 learn to love other peoples and other ways. There had 
 been difficulty in all this, fatigue, discomfort — a new 
 language to make over into his native tongue, the toil 
 of the fields, the inconveniences of log cabin life, the 
 hampering conditions of study, the sudden plunge at 
 last into the whirlpool that we call American life, and 
 the dubious feeling that maybe he would not be able 
 to understand it, or keep pace with it. A complex 
 interweaving this, of both physical and mental hard- 
 ships that could depress and discourage a soul not 
 sturdily set for any hazard. 
 
 And now the decks were cleared for action. The wide 
 field of the priesthood opened out a limitless horizon 
 before him. In what direction to travel? Where was 
 the gateway to the great romance that he had heard 
 calling to him since his boyhood in Brabant? He had 
 crossed the sea to convert the wild Indian. Now the 
 tide of white men rolling westward needed help per- 
 
 36 
 
Early Tears in the Triesthood 37 
 
 haps as much as any Indian. The work before him 
 seemed endless and the laborers were few. Nobody 
 ever suggested college life to him again. His career 
 was therefore destined to be more directly like that of 
 Him who went about doing good. The first duties as- 
 signed to him pointed that way. He was made assistant 
 priest at St. Francis Xavier's Church, in St. "Louis. 
 
 Direct contact with souls awakens in the priest the 
 spark of a new life, and if he feeds the spark it will 
 grow to a flame that illumines his own soul as well as 
 those of his flock. The merely academic view of life 
 absorbed from books alone is a thin and ghostly thing 
 compared with the depth and perspective gained by 
 touching life at first hand. Books are to life what the 
 tentative plan is to the building, or what reading about 
 war is to fighting it. And it was building and fighting 
 that was all the time lurking in the depths of Father 
 Damen's soul and struggling to come to the surface. 
 He must himself have been conscious of the hidden 
 power in him, for in the period just after his ordina- 
 tion, a period of pause and survey, while he was at- 
 tending to the simpler duties of the parish priest, we 
 find him studying the situation and planning and pray- 
 ing for his future efficiency among the people. And 
 he decided that it would be through his preaching that 
 he would achieve it. 
 
 On the surface it seemed rather a random choice, 
 perhaps a piece of foolish self-deception. The glamour 
 of large audiences, the thrill of swaying popular sen- 
 timent have made many less simple men than Father 
 Damen persuade themselves that they were accom- 
 plished orators, when a canvass of the question would 
 give the minority but a single vote. It did appear that 
 Father Damen was drifting toward this class. Father 
 Coppens writes of him then: 'He had not developed 
 any notable oratorical powers. In fact, I remember an 
 old lady remarking that when she wanted to get a good 
 
38 ^Arnold T>amen y S.J. 
 
 sleep, she could do so without fail by listening to one 
 of his sermons. He felt his deficiency in this respect.' 
 This 'feeling his deficiency' was a good sign. 
 
 Nevertheless, he clung tenaciously to the idea, though 
 he did not talk much about it. Neither did he waste any 
 time dreaming about it. He proceeded with the parish 
 routine, only under his hands it was always more than 
 routine. He brought over into the spiritual field the 
 Hollander's ambition of steadily getting more land out 
 of the sea. The aggressive character of his later work 
 began immediately to appear. Nothing hurried about it, 
 or fitful or spectacular ; just what we might call a con- 
 tinuous poldering, one bit of work added to another, 
 with sufficient indications that beneath it all was a spirit 
 that kept reaching out for more and yet more. Turning 
 over the baptismal records for those years at St. Fran- 
 cis Xavier's Church we come upon the brief entries of 
 baptism with their short additional remarks, and the 
 signature A. Damen, S.J. Here we shall find on one 
 page a note stating that an old man is brought into 
 the Church with all the sacred rites. Further down, the 
 record of a woman baptized hurriedly and secretly on 
 her death bed ; and immediately below, her little servant, 
 a slave, baptized at the same time. Again an entire 
 family mentioned in one entry — and so it goes, page 
 after page. 
 
 It is easily seen that these records imply much more 
 than is written down. Father Damen had to find these 
 people, keep in touch with them, instruct them, and 
 follow them along as far as possible after baptism. 
 To keep at this work day by day and year after year 
 is peculiarly exhausting. The way in which individual 
 cases can multiply, overlap and entangle is bewildering. 
 And the sudden emergencies that are always occurring 
 with some individual somewhere along the line will 
 put the strongest nervous system to the test. Father 
 Damen did a great amount of this, yet it was but a 
 
Early Tears in the Tries t hood 39 
 
 single feature of his daily work. Along the pathway 
 of his routine occupations Damen kept constantly 
 watching for the chance of bringing outsiders into the 
 Church. He had a keen eye for any opening that pre- 
 sented itself and he followed up an opportunity with 
 quick and sure judgment. Merely commonplace hap- 
 penings, even incidents that opened unpleasantly, would 
 be skillfully turned by him into a conversion. In his 
 sermon on Confession he narrates one of these himself. 
 
 Some years ago [he tells us] , when I was pastor of St. 
 Francis Xavier Church in St. Louis, I was called to a 
 sick lady, and when I came to the house I found with 
 the sick lady a Protestant doctor. I asked the doctor to 
 leave me alone with the lady for a few moments and 
 he did so. In the meantime I heard the lady's Confession 
 and administered to her the consolations of our holy re- 
 ligion, the Sacraments of the Church. Having got through 
 I said to the doctor that he might come in. But the doctor 
 was a Yankee, and you all know that the Yankees are a 
 very inquisitive people and always want to know the ins 
 and outs of everything ; and so, the doctor said to me : 
 
 'What have you been doing, sir?' 
 
 'Well, doctor, that is a very impertinent question. But 
 as I know what you are driving at, I will answer you. I 
 heard the Confession of that lady.' 
 
 'You do not pretend to forgive sin, do you?' said the 
 doctor. 
 
 'Yes, sir, I do.' 
 
 'Well, sir,' continued the doctor, 'that is a very extraor- 
 dinary power.' 
 
 'Yes, sir, it is. But you do not believe in that power, 
 doctor?' said I. 
 
 'No, sir,' said he. 'No, no, I do not believe in any such 
 nonsense as that.' 
 
 'Well, doctor/ said I, 'do you believe that the Apostles 
 had the power of forgiving sins?' 
 
 'No, sir, I do not.' 
 
 'Then, doctor, what did our divine Saviour mean, when, 
 breathing upon His Apostles, He said, Receive ye the 
 
40 ^Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are for- 
 given them ? What did Christ mean, doctor, at that time ?' 
 
 'Well, I declare/ said he, 'that is a tough question/ 
 
 'A little tough, doctor. Will you be so kind as to an- 
 swer it?' 
 
 'Well/ said the doctor, 'I am not prepared for that 
 now. I am here on professional business, and am not ready- 
 to answer you now, but I will see you again/ 
 
 The doctor was a sincere and honest man, and when 
 he arrived at his office he remembered his promise to see 
 me again and, knowing that he should be familiar with 
 his subject in order to talk with me, he procured himself 
 some books on Catholic doctrine and read them through 
 very carefully, until he became convinced that Confession 
 is of divine origin. He became interested in the matter and 
 procured more books, and finally became convinced that 
 the Catholic Church is the only true Church of God. 
 
 Three weeks after that there came a rap at my door. 
 'Walk in/ and the doctor walked in. 
 
 'Father/ said he, 'will you be kind enough to hear my 
 Confession?' 
 
 4 Eh, doctor?! Hear your Confession? Why, you do 
 not believe in that?' 
 
 'I do, Father/ says he, 'and I believe in all the other 
 doctrines of the Catholic Church. I am thoroughly con- 
 vinced that it is the only true Church and I would like 
 to make my Confession/ 
 
 'All right, doctor, get on your knees/ He got on his 
 knees and I heard his Confession and received him into 
 the Church. 
 
 After three years of assistance in parish work, he 
 was appointed first pastor of St. Francis Xavier's 
 Church in 1847, a position he was to hold for ten 
 years. Here, for the first time, his power began to 
 reveal itself. From his experiences during the three 
 previous years, the practical lesson he had learned was 
 the value of organization. 
 
 Nowadays, organization is an old idea among us and 
 an overworked idea as well. For many years it has 
 
Early Tears in the Tries thood 41 
 
 served as the battle-cry of efficiency in America until 
 people are beginning to realize that organization is 
 turning into a form of centralization that threatens to 
 strangle them. Politics, labor, charities, business, lit- 
 erature, studies, 'movements' of all kinds, have steadily 
 shown a growing tendency to draw the individual into 
 the complicated machinery of organization, to stifle 
 his personality and to stamp him as merely a stand- 
 ardized piece of equipment. It is the abuse of a good 
 idea. In union there is strength, it is true, but when 
 the union is too close, when the clock is wound up 
 too tight, it will not go at all. 
 
 Back in the 'forties, however, we were rather at the 
 other extreme, more or less scrambled along all lines. 
 Danger lurked here, too. As a single evidence of this 
 condition, we were then directly headed for the Civil 
 War, only fifteen years away. Organization then was 
 just what we needed everywhere, a sane adjustment 
 of huge national forces that were growing so rapidly 
 that they were getting out of hand. Only a wise man 
 would see this at the time, because we were infatuated 
 with our mere size and power. And only a strong man 
 could control these conflicting currents and turn them 
 into a single stream. 
 
 The Catholic Church was one of these forces. She 
 had had her own experience of the disunion that per- 
 meated the country, a disunion we may consider un- 
 avoidable owing to the rapid, sporadic and varied 
 developments effervescing simultaneously in every 
 quarter. Father Damen was quick to see that as his 
 work grew, the only way to keep it unified and steady 
 was to give it the spine of organization. He did not try 
 to do too much at once. He was not of the type that 
 gathers a crowd, thrills them with an 'inspirational 
 talk/ and then passes on, registering another move- 
 ment 'established.' He knew that an organization is 
 like a building, stone laid upon stone, under the per- 
 
42 '^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 sonal supervision of the architect. In 1848, he began 
 Very simply and quietly by starting the Young Men's 
 Sodality. The first idea he had in mind as the object 
 of this Sodality was a religious union of college alumni 
 in St. Louis, to keep the old students of the University 
 together and to preserve their faith. It began thus, but 
 many others were anxious to share in its benefits, and 
 the original idea spread to include Catholic laymen of 
 St. Louis. Professional men joined in large numbers, 
 lawyers, doctors, engineers. Bankers and business men 
 of influence came in. Its register shows a long list of 
 the best-known Catholics of St. Louis at that time. 
 These men were encouraged and instructed to spread 
 the faith. They responded, not only by the good exam- 
 ple of their lives, but by aggressive work in winning 
 back careless Catholics to the steady practice of their 
 religion and in assisting in the conversion of non- 
 Catholics. By 1856 it numbered three hundred of the 
 most prominent men of St. Louis. 
 
 This form of sodality work, namely, gathering from 
 a whole city to form one body, would not be practical 
 today, nor is it needed now as then, when parishes 
 were not so thoroughly organized. But it remains as an 
 example of the possibilities of sodality work. During 
 the ten years he directed this St. Louis sodality, Damen 
 gave to it such steady and personal attention that from 
 a small beginning it grew to be a strong religious force 
 in the city for fifty years. From it finally, as from a 
 nucleus and a model, grew all the other sodalities of the 
 city of St. Louis. All Father Damen's work had in it 
 this element of fruitful reproduction. Even though his 
 original planting died out with time, it was not until it 
 had scattered abroad the seeds of future harvests. He 
 had seized thoroughly the idea of the vital importance of 
 having roots to a work that is intended to last and he 
 was willing to spend time planting the roots deep. He 
 was not attracted to occupations that brought only ap- 
 
Early Tears in the Triesthood 43 
 
 plause as their result. He did not allow monotony to 
 stale his energy, and he showed none of the restlessness 
 of temperament that tires easily when held to one line 
 and is satisfied to be superficial if only it can often 
 change. Like the successful oil driller, he had the 
 practical instinct to locate spiritual values, and when 
 he chose a prospect he drilled persistently. 
 
 This appears in his work with the Young Men's 
 Sodality. Evaluating the group, he saw that within 
 them was another group who could gain more spiritu- 
 ally by adding something to the ordinary sodality rou- 
 tine. To these men he suggested the idea of a special 
 retreat. He invited them to come as guests to the col- 
 lege at a time when they could afford the leisure, and 
 to spend several days there in making the Spiritual 
 Exercises of St. Ignatius. It was a turning point in 
 the lives of them all. At the end of the retreat four of 
 them decided to enter the Society of Jesus. And all 
 of them became permanent influences for good in the 
 Catholic life of the city. 
 
 This was apparently the first retreat of its kind given 
 in St. Louis and, as far as we are aware, in the West. 
 How widely it has spread since that day, everyone 
 knows who is at all in touch with Catholic life. This 
 type of retreat is now a part of all Catholic school 
 work, regularly scheduled to be made by the students 
 once each year. It has penetrated in one form or an- 
 other into most Catholic organizations who yearly 
 make the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, following 
 Father Damen's plan as closely as is possible. And the 
 recent opening in many places of the houses for lay- 
 men's retreats is but the flowering out of this first re- 
 treat in St. Louis University. 
 
 The devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was 
 the favorite of Father Damen. This devotion, originat- 
 ing in Paris, was introduced into St. Francis Church 
 
44 Arnold Teamen, SJ. 
 
 by Father Gleizal, his predecessor. Damen developed 
 it into one of the most popular devotions in his church. 
 From there it spread through all the Jesuit churches 
 in the West, another instance of the broad fruit fulness 
 of his work. When Damen came to Chicago he chose 
 the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the third 
 Sunday of August, as the day for laying the corner- 
 stone of Holy Family Church. He put all his parish 
 work under her protection. 
 
 In addition to these two organizations and his ad- 
 ministration of church matters as pastor, Damen al- 
 ways did his full share of the regular pastoral duties, 
 sick calls, preaching, Confessions, the parish school, 
 instruction of converts. In the first year of his pas- 
 torate, what was called the Asiatic cholera swept St. 
 Louis with all the deadliness of our more recent 'flu' 
 attacks. Father Damen was everywhere during this 
 plague, expending his great physical strength to ex- 
 haustion. He was among those who were recognized 
 by the city as having done remarkable service to the 
 stricken people. 
 
 Father Murphy, who came from New York to St. 
 Louis in 1851 to assume the office of Vice- Provincial 
 for the western Jesuits, records his admiration of St. 
 Francis Xavier's parish among his first impressions. 
 He writes to the General, Father Beckx : 
 
 The two pastors, Fathers Damen and Loretan, are 
 prudent. The piety of the parishioners and of the two 
 Sodalities is remarkable for this country. ... I have 
 never seen anywhere in America so many Communions 
 of men. What a fine meeting every Sunday morning of the 
 Arch-confraternity of the Immaculate Heart! When I 
 think of New York, these things strike me very forcibly. 
 It is all because our Fathers here are allowed free play 
 and their influence is very great. Their knowledge of Eng- 
 lish amazes me more and more every day. Not only do 
 they speak and write well, but some of them preach per- 
 
Early Tears in the Triesthood 45 
 
 fectly. This is what I had been told in New York and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 At about the same time Bishop Van de Velde of 
 Chicago, writing of Catholic conditions in the West, 
 says : 
 
 In St. Francis Xavier's Church, St. Louis, there are 
 more Confessions, Communions, and especially more con- 
 versions of non-Catholics than in other churches. 
 
 Father Verdin, then the President of St. Louis Uni- 
 versity, describing the work done in the church, says 
 that there are five Masses at the high altar on every 
 Sunday and feast day, the church crowded at all 
 Masses. At least two sermons are preached on these 
 days. On Sundays there are five hundred Communions, 
 and on First Fridays and feast days, two hundred. 'I 
 say/ he concludes, 'and it is the truth, that the church 
 is our joy and our glory.' 
 
 A little later, in 1856, near the end of Damen's pas- 
 torate there, Father Wippern writes : 'The sermons in 
 our church produce great fruit, as we may infer from 
 the immense crowds of people and the use of the Sac- 
 raments, which is extraordinary for this part of the 
 country.' 
 
 Father Murphy, all through his term of office, con- 
 tinues to be impressed by Damen. The winter of 
 1851-52 was a hard one in St. Louis, with great suf- 
 fering among the poor, many of whom were on the 
 verge of starvation. Damen always watched over the 
 poor and, what is more, he understood them. He felt 
 as one of them and he could do things with them and 
 for them that they would resent at other hands. On 
 this occasion the immediate and pressing need was 
 food. It had to be got to the needy in large quantities 
 and in a hurry. Damen saw that the only practicable 
 solution was to establish a food station. For this he 
 collected funds himself through the city, started the 
 
46 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 station and carried it through the emergency, support- 
 ing hundreds of families. All who came from any part 
 of the city were taken care of. The only drawback to 
 the enterprise, as we view it today, was the name that 
 it had. It was called the Soup House, hardly a legend 
 to tempt a delicate appetite. We like to believe that 
 Damen did not invent the name. 
 
 Father Murphy writes of this relief work in a letter 
 to Father Beckx: 
 
 The winter has been a very severe one. The kitchen for 
 the poor, known as the Soup House, started and sup- 
 ported by Father Damen, has fed a great number of fami- 
 lies. One can say that he is at the head of the charities of 
 St. Louis. 
 
 Again, in 1853, he reports to Beckx: 
 
 The great good being done in our church is a subject 
 of edification to the whole town. At St. Xavier's there 
 is always some devotion to maintain the fervor of the 
 faithful. Confessions are very numerous. Something is 
 there, as a matter of fact, that electrifies the most indif- 
 ferent. Father Damen, a Hollander, is the soul of it all — 
 a zealous worker, ardent and courageous by nature, with 
 robust health and gifted with uncommon eloquence, he 
 suffices for everything and carries everything along with 
 him. He has, too, the talent of gaining the good will of 
 the clergy and of securing their co-operation. Many Prot- 
 estants owe their conversion to him. 
 
 Like every man of energy, Damen was not without 
 his critics. Toward the end of his pastorate in St. 
 Louis, complaints were made that he catered to the 
 rich. Father De Smet, taking up Damen's defense, 
 answered this in a letter to Father Beckx, dated May 
 13, 1856. 
 
 Reverend Father Provincial, [he writes] has asked the 
 Consultors to say a word to your Paternity about Father 
 Damen, because of certain ideas concerning him, er- 
 
Early Tears in the Triesthood 47 
 
 roneous in my opinion, which have been addressed to you. 
 As pastor and missionary in a large American city, I 
 think you would be hard put to it to find his equal in the 
 whole country. For many years he has been working in- 
 defatigably, with much edification and great and consol- 
 ing fruits in the vineyard of the Lord. He has introduced 
 into St. Louis many works of piety with great success. 
 Several charitable institutions owe to him their existence 
 and support. The number of conversions he has made 
 among Protestants and infidels is very large. He has 
 brought back to the practice of their religion a great mul- 
 titude of Catholics who were weak and unsteady in the 
 Faith. The Sodality of the Blessed Virgin which he has 
 established in St. Louis and over which he presides, is 
 made up of the best men of the city, over three hundred 
 gentlemen of all ranks of society. All the Bishops who 
 assisted at the Provincial Council of St. Louis last Octo- 
 ber were witnesses of the zeal of the Sodality and the 
 great good which results from it for the whole city. He 
 possesses the esteem, the respect and the admiration of 
 most Catholics of the city. The rich draw on their purses 
 for him much more readily than for anyone else to aid 
 him in his charities and his holy enterprises. The rich also 
 have need of counsel, sometimes much more than the poor, 
 and they address themselves by preference to him. This 
 sometimes gives rise to talk and causes a little umbrage. 
 Just now Father Damen is contemplating the erection 
 of an industrial school under the care of the Sisters of 
 Mercy, as an offset to schools of their kind among the 
 Protestants, who do much to pervert the children of the 
 Catholic poor. He has been engaged in this venture 
 scarcely two months and already the subscriptions amount 
 to more than sixteen thousand dollars. With four thou- 
 sand dollars, which he expects to obtain before long, the 
 school will be founded and two hundred children at least 
 will be saved from the hands of the sectaries. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE GIFT OF PREACHING 
 
 WRITING of Damen in 1853, Father Murphy says 
 he is 'gifted with uncommon eloquence/ This 
 could not have been said of him a few years previously. 
 Although from the start Damen had aimed at being 
 an effective preacher, his early efforts, as we have noted, 
 were failures. Instead of being a tonic in the pulpit, 
 he was a soporific. Partly owing, no doubt, to his yet 
 incomplete mastery of English, he fumbled his lan- 
 guage. He lacked directness and confidence. His 
 thoughts sprawled about without articulation or se- 
 quence. Strange, one might have said, that a man of 
 so practical a mind should continue to be so impractical 
 in this; a pity that he wasted time trying to talk that 
 he could employ in useful work. 
 
 No one knew better than Damen that he was not 
 doing well at his preaching. But there was something 
 in him that told him to go ahead. When he saw that 
 evidently he was not improving, in fact at a stand- 
 still, he resolved to call for special help from God. He 
 made a vow never in his life to decline any task that 
 superiors might assign him, if God would grant him 
 the gift of preaching. Father Coppens tells us the re- 
 sult : 'Suddenly his success in preaching became ex- 
 traordinary. He drew immense audiences, filled the 
 largest churches and by his earnestness touched the 
 hardest hearts.' This remarkably sudden transition 
 from futility to power in preaching was regarded on 
 all sides with astonishment. 
 
 We may add here that Father Damen was true to 
 
 48 
 
'The gift of Treaching 49 
 
 his side of the contract. His vow, a most difficult one 
 when we consider it carefully, was not lightly made, 
 nor lightly fulfilled. As long as he lived, in big and 
 little things, he responded to the smallest wish of his 
 superiors. He was the gainer in both ways. He acquired 
 the visible power of preaching and with it the inner 
 virtue of a perfect obedience. 
 
 Damen's desire to be a great preacher was not based 
 upon any craving for literary distinction. The aca- 
 demic sermon, a poor thing at best for the people, 
 was never his ideal. It would even seem that he turned 
 away from the merely literary as a possible hindrance 
 to direct effectiveness. He had studied the best models 
 in Latin and Greek, as well as in Dutch, French and 
 German. But from the easy manner in which he could 
 lay a language aside it is clear that what he sought was 
 not literary effect. In his letter to his parents we find 
 him after only a year forgetting his mother tongue 
 with no symptoms of dismay. Later he apologizes to 
 the Jesuit General for writing in English, since he has 
 grown out of the habit of using Latin or French. 
 Again, he asks in Chicago for somebody to preach in 
 German, as he has lost what he had of that language. 
 And he seems to have thrown them all overboard with 
 the sense that he was lightening the ship. The fact is, 
 that he wished for only one thing in order to be effec- 
 tive in America, the mastery of English, and he used 
 the other languages only for their aid to him in this. 
 And this he attained, through hard efforts and the help 
 of God — a clear, virile, direct English which he used 
 for the exact purpose he desired, to tell divine truth 
 to people in a way they would not forget. Neither was 
 he enamored of the dramatic quality of his sermons. 
 He never stood back, as it were, to contemplate their 
 artistic value. The only appreciations he gives us of 
 his sermons are to be extracted from such stray phrases 
 as 'preached three times today'; 'ten thousand Com- 
 
50 ^Arnold T>am-en y S.J. 
 
 munions' ; 'my voice holds out well' ; 'not feeling at all 
 tired/ 
 
 The explanation of this is simply that Damen did 
 not rest with preaching as his final aim. It was a 
 most useful tool in his hands, and only as such he 
 valued it. He had another idea back of this. He wished 
 to reach, to appeal to, to convert, large masses of men. 
 He did not think in terms of brilliant masterpieces, 
 city churches, cultured audiences, distinguished per- 
 sonages. His imagination swept out and encircled whole 
 regions at a flight. He visioned vast multitudes gather- 
 ing for the Church and felt that he was one who must 
 go out and gather them. It is the missionary ideal that 
 held Damen and that explains everything about him, 
 his excellences as well as his limitations. The literary 
 preacher is one thing, the missionary preacher is an- 
 other, or rather, is two things. And Damen was, above 
 all, the missionary. Like Xavier, like Marquette, his 
 ambition was to carry the faith to ever widening 
 circles of men. Preaching was to him merely the sculp- 
 tor's chisel to fashion his idea and to make it stand 
 out clearcut to easy view, the instrument he played upon 
 to enable men to catch and hold the melody. As we 
 shall discover, he estimated his audience first and then 
 fashioned his discourse. But his main thought was al- 
 ways a missionary thought. He was not ultimately 
 thinking of how he would give out his discourse, but 
 of how he would gather in his audience. 
 
 Our idea of Damen, therefore, would be very in- 
 complete if we were to look on him merely as a 
 preacher. He was much more than this. He was a 
 missionary. He regarded preaching as the door that 
 opened into the mission field, but the gathering in of 
 great harvests of souls was always his dominant idea. 
 When the time arrived to take up this work, Damen 
 had gone through a preparation that made him per- 
 fectly apt for it. During these first ten years of his 
 
The Qift of V reaching 51 
 
 priesthood, Providence had gradually maneuvered him 
 into position. He had not been sent to preach, but had 
 been put into contact with human life in all its stages 
 from childhood to old age — children in the schools, 
 young men in the sodality, families in the parish, the 
 sacramental and spiritual duties within the church, 
 wide experience derived from the confessional and 
 the pulpit, visits to the sick and dying; conferences 
 with the troubled and the scrupulous, instructions to 
 converts, the administration of a parish with its inner 
 details — all this experience he had absorbed and had 
 ready at hand for instant use. He had studied a cross- 
 section of Catholic life down to its last nerve. He had 
 taught much, but in the process he had learned more. 
 Outside events, too, shaped his future. He had al- 
 ready begun to give missions here and there, near 
 home, whenever parish arrangements would allow it. 
 His sermons drew crowds everywhere he went, so that 
 he became very well known not only in St. Louis 
 but through Missouri. Among other places, his name 
 had reached Carondelet, where Father O' Regan was 
 head of the Theological Seminary. In 1854, Father 
 O'Regan was appointed Bishop of Chicago. After con- 
 sulting the needs of his diocese, he decided that one of 
 the things that would help would be to have Father 
 Damen come to Chicago and to conduct a series of 
 missions there, along the lines of his work in St. 
 Louis. Accordingly, in the summer of 1856, Father 
 Damen, with three other Jesuit priests, Fathers Bou- 
 dreaux, Masselis and Corbett, arrived in Chicago and 
 gave three weeks of missions in the Cathedral of the 
 Holy Name. To judge from the reports, nothing like 
 it had ever been done in Chicago. Father Matthew 
 Dillon, pastor of the Holy Name Church and Presi- 
 dent of the University of St. Mary's of the Lake, wrote 
 of this mission in the St. Louis Leader as follows : 
 
52 ^Arnold T>amen> SJ. 
 
 The spiritual retreat which our Right Reverend Bishop 
 has provided for the Catholics of this city has just closed. 
 For the last three weeks the exercises have been con- 
 ducted by five Jesuit Fathers under the guidance of Father 
 Damen. The fruits of their holy and successful labors 
 are already manifest. Many Protestants have embraced 
 the Catholic religion, and the Catholics, to be counted by 
 thousands — many, very many of whom had neglected their 
 spiritual interests — crowded the churches and confession- 
 als. The zeal, the piety and labors of Father Damen and 
 his associates, and his practical and persuasive eloquence, 
 have won for these eminent servants of God the love 
 and veneration of all our citizens, Protestant and Cath- 
 olic. From four in the morning until after midnight, these 
 zealous Fathers and the parochial clergymen have been 
 occupied, yet all this was insufficient, such was the holy 
 importunity of the people whom God moved to profit by 
 their ministry. 
 
 It is understood that twelve thousand at least have re- 
 ceived Communion. None of the churches could accom- 
 modate the multitude that crowded from all parts of the 
 city. The cathedral, with its galleries newly put up, being 
 found altogether too small, the mission was transferred to 
 the large enclosure on the North Side, known as the 
 church of the Holy Name, and here, as if nothing 
 had been previously done, a new harvest is found 
 already mature. 
 
 Years of spiritual indolence are atoned for and a new 
 life, the life of grace, is begun by hundreds who for long 
 years knew not how great a blessing this was. How con- 
 soling to the heart of the Right Reverend Bishop and to 
 the missionaries must be this fruit of their labors, this 
 fresh evidence of the vitality of the Catholic spirit, which 
 it would seem neither time nor circumstances the most 
 unfavorable to its culture can root out of the soul of the 
 sincere believer! 
 
 Although some years must yet pass before he could 
 give himself to the missions as he wished, yet, it was 
 his first step on the path he had so long looked for- 
 ward to. Its immediate result was to detach him from 
 
7 he Qijt of Treaching 53 
 
 St. Louis and to send him to Chicago to start what 
 was to be the famous Holy Family parish. 
 
 This was a most timely mission for the diocese. A 
 good deal of the friction and discontent that inevitably 
 attend the beginnings of every big work was then run- 
 ning through the Chicago Catholics. This was made 
 acute by the variety of nationalities that were settling 
 in the city. Distrust, jealousies, suspicions, the little 
 birds that gather to a cloud darkening the sun, were all 
 part of the fever that hindered the growth of the in- 
 fant church of Chicago. It was a real danger to the 
 faith and at the time of the mission it had disturbed 
 the attachment between Bishop and flock. 
 
 Father Damen caught the trouble on the opening day 
 of the mission. As he and Father Boudreaux were ac- 
 companying the Bishop from the residence to the 
 cathedral for the opening Mass of the mission, he ob- 
 served that as the party passed through the crowds 
 gathered about the church, not a hat was raised nor 
 any token of reverence given to their Bishop beyond a 
 stare of curiosity. During the Mass that followed, 
 Father Damen opened the mission, and in the course 
 of that first sermon spoke upon the reverence due their 
 Bishop. He pleaded for a return of the congregation 
 to their former simple obedience and affection. The 
 result was happy and immediate. On the way back to 
 the residence after Mass, the Bishop found the people 
 kneeling down to receive his blessing as he passed. 
 
 Ten years after this incident, the entire Catholic 
 population of Chicago turned out~ with banners and 
 with music to welcome Bishop Foley to Chicago. Not 
 many perhaps took time to think at that moment what 
 ten years had done to improve the Catholic spirit of 
 the city, now flooding with enthusiasm. But Father 
 John Waldron, the pastor of St. John's, who had lived 
 through those years, and was as close to its inner his- 
 
£4 Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 tory as any priest of Chicago, was standing in a group 
 of friends watching this procession passing by, and he 
 summed up his reflections upon the change of Catho- 
 lic spirit with the remark, 'Well, all this is due to 
 Father Damen/ 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 IN YOUNG CHICAGO 
 
 CHICAGO, in 1856, was like a young eagle strug- 
 gling to fly. It had one wing extended and a talon 
 lifted, but the other talon was stuck deep in the mud. 
 When Damen came there, he must have felt it was a 
 home-coming to the lowlands of Holland. There was 
 water everywhere; Lake Michigan washed Chicago's 
 shore line; the Chicago River wound through its in- 
 terior; rain and snow came down and stayed where 
 they fell, until evaporation took them off. The city was 
 but a few feet above water level and flat as the palm 
 of one's hand. Satisfactory drainage was impossible. 
 In rainy weather the citizens staggered through the 
 mud, a hundred thousand of them. City traffic, except 
 in dry weather, was badly clogged, or altogether 
 stopped. On either side of the streets, huge ditches 
 were dug to carry away the water, but with no fall 
 in the level it simply stayed there. 
 
 Ida Tarbell, in her life of Abraham Lincoln, gives 
 us a description of Chicago's appearance in i860, just 
 a few years after Damen's first mission there. 
 
 It was on May 16 that the Republican Convention of 
 i860 formally opened at Chicago. The audacity of invit- 
 ing a National Convention to meet there in the condition 
 in which Chicago chanced to be at that time was purely 
 Chicagoan. No other city would have risked it. In ten 
 years Chicago had nearly quadrupled its population, and 
 it was believed that the feat would be repeated in the com- 
 ing decade. In the first flush of youthful energy and am- 
 bition the town had undertaken the colossal task of raising 
 
 55 
 
§6 ^Arnold Damen, SJ. 
 
 itself bodily out of the grassy marsh, where it had been 
 originally placed, to a level of twelve feet above Lake 
 Michigan and of putting underneath a good solid foun- 
 dation. When the invitation to the Convention was ex- 
 tended, half of the buildings in Chicago were on stilts; 
 some of the streets had been raised to the new grade, 
 others still lay in the mud; half of the sidewalks were 
 poised high on piles, and half still were down on a level 
 with the lake. A city with a conventional sense of decorum 
 would not have cared to be seen in this demoralized con- 
 dition, but Chicago perhaps conceived that it would but 
 prove her courage and confidence to show the country 
 what she was doing ; and so she had the Convention come. 
 
 Fifteen years after this the city was still filling in. 
 It grew so fast that the leveling could not keep up 
 with it. Streets in many places bore the sarcastically 
 humorous legend No bottom, hoisted on a long pole 
 and stuck into the middle of a mud hole. Whenever a 
 fire occurred in these districts in rainy weather, it was 
 invariably a complete success, great lumber yards or 
 grain elevators burning spectacularly in the middle dis- 
 tance, while the firemen stood aloof as spectators sev- 
 eral blocks away, beside their engines sunk to the wheel 
 tops in the middle of every street that led to the fire. 
 
 This problem of motion was the first great difficulty 
 to be overcome in a city that was growing like a young 
 giant. Already in 1856 the people were solving it. And 
 Father Damen on his arrival found them in the present 
 loop district engaged in the familiar Dutch Lowland 
 occupation of poldering, that is, filling in the city to 
 rescue it from the water. Between 1855 and i860 the 
 entire level of the business portion was raised some 
 twelve feet. It was to be many years, however, before 
 the poldering would reach Father Damen's parish on 
 the west side. 
 
 This city of Chicago, sticky as flypaper underfoot 
 and scattered over with hastily built wooden houses 
 
In Toung Chicago 57 
 
 that were not much more than shelters, nevertheless, 
 'had something/ It had location, and the eye alive to 
 commercial opportunity was quick to observe it. Set at 
 the foot of the Great Lakes, it had possible communi- 
 cation all the way through to the Atlantic. Its river 
 gave it, not only one of the finest harbors in the world, 
 but also a possible way into the Mississippi to the 
 south, while as a railroad center it was a pivotal point 
 to the four corners of the country. These advantages 
 had been seen by travelers, and long before any of the 
 large cities of the Middle West were founded the place 
 was taken note of. 'As early as 1688/ Father Gar- 
 raghan tells us in his History of the Catholic Church 
 of Chicago, 'the name of the city had been written 
 into the geography of the day, Franquelin's famous 
 map of that year showing Fort Chicagou on the site 
 of the future metropolis; and this, thirteen years be- 
 fore Cadillac founded Detroit, seventy-six before 
 Laclede set up his trading post in St. Louis, and a hun- 
 dred before Denham and Patterson platted the village 
 that was to develop into Cincinnati/ 
 
 Marquette and Joliet saw the same thing. On the 
 cross set as a memorial to Marquette's visit to Chicago 
 in 1674, when he landed at what is now the foot of 
 Damen Avenue and the Chicago River, is an inscrip- 
 tion where we read: 'Joliet recommended it for its 
 natural advantages as a place of first settlement and 
 suggested a lake to the gulf waterway by cutting a 
 canal through the portage west of here where begins 
 the Chicago Drainage Ship Canal. This remarkable 
 prophecy made two hundred and thirty-four years ago 
 is now fulfilled/ 
 
 Father St. Cyr, the first pastor of Chicago, wrote 
 in 1833 to Bishop Rosati in St. Louis: 'The situation 
 of Chicago is the finest I have ever seen. . . . Every- 
 thing proclaims that Chicago will one day become a 
 grreat town and one of commercial importance.' And 
 
58 ^Arnold Dametiy SJ. 
 
 twenty-five years after, Father Damen, in a letter 
 to the General of the Jesuits in Rome, says : 'This town 
 will become one of the largest in the United States/ 
 
 If explorers and missionaries could thus see at a 
 glance the commercial possibilities of this spot, it is 
 easy to imagine how traders, merchants, land pros- 
 pectors, anyone directly interested in the business of 
 making money, would grasp at its obvious advantages. 
 And that is what happened. As soon as the tide of 
 immigration reached the Middle West, a large per- 
 centage of it poured toward Chicago. The more alert, 
 daring, energetic, reached it first and started the city 
 off with a rush of vitality that struck the keynote of 
 its progress and characterizes it to the present day. In 
 1840, there were five thousand inhabitants in Chicago. 
 By 18^0, it had more than three hundred thousand 
 people. In thirty years, it had multiplied its population 
 six hundred times. There is no record in history of a 
 growth so rapid. 
 
 That is one of the reasons why the city was sunk in 
 the mud. It spread so fast that it hadn't the leisure 
 for looking pretty, or even for keeping neat. So many 
 things had to be done, and done right away, that it 
 couldn't get time to wash its face. Streets sprang up 
 over night, and houses, people, business crowded along 
 them helter skelter. They just named the streets and 
 let it go at that. With a city almost down to the water 
 level, it can readily be understood that these streets 
 were a morass in wet weather, and in dry seasons foot- 
 deep with Death Valley dust. They couldn't help it. 
 Like soldiers driving for an objective, they simply must 
 go ahead anyhow. So they plunged horses and wagons 
 into the drifts of dust, or churned through the swamps 
 of mud, survive or perish. Cattle and hogs, destined 
 for the stockyards, wallowed and squealed and mooed 
 along the streets, pursued by relentless horsemen, hal- 
 looing and whip-cracking; distracted cows ran danger- 
 
In Toung Qhimgo 59 
 
 ously over the sidewalks, unconsciously prefiguring the 
 modern automobile; frightened mothers rushed out of 
 doors to drag their children away from the mad 
 stampeding. And nobody could do a thing about it, 
 or see a present way out of it. Business had to go on. 
 One had to move fast to live in Chicago. Its practical 
 motto was the equivalent of, 'Devil take the hind- 
 most/ 
 
 Naturally, the town attracted two classes of persons 
 especially; those who were fascinated by the romance 
 of speed and those who had the vision and the tenacity 
 to see and to cling to opportunity. All others were 
 submerged or eliminated. Thus the Chicago boom came 
 to be an affair of not merely a few promoters and 
 organizers who ballyhooed the population into an ar- 
 tificial activity that would wither when the turmoil and 
 the shouting died. It was rather the natural and spon- 
 taneous spirit of the whole city, made up of the per- 
 sonal contributions of each person in it. This kept the 
 boom going steadily and saved Chicago from the defla- 
 tion that has been the death of a thousand towns in 
 the United States. They knew the city had greatness 
 within its reach and they were determined to develop 
 it and share in it. 
 
 Merely to follow along in Chicago, it will be easily 
 surmised, was something of a feat in those days. But to 
 lead here called for an extra infusion of energy, clear- 
 headedness and driving power. The city was in an 
 effervescence ; it was bursting with business. The inflow 
 of settlers was so steady and rapid that houses could 
 not be built fast enough. Patches of dwellings, like 
 separate little towns, began to appear to the west, south, 
 and north, their sites chosen apparently at random. The 
 city limits spread enormously and in so detached a 
 fashion that anything like civic plans for the orderly 
 laying out of the town were impossible. There was a 
 go-as-you-please atmosphere over everything that made 
 
60 ^Arnold Damen, SJ. 
 
 any kind of direction difficult. The temperament of 
 the people had that 'I will' quality in it which later 
 gave the city its slogan. But at that time it was not a 
 civic T will/ but each individual took the slogan as 
 his own particular property. This tendency left its 
 mark on the social and the religious trend of the town 
 as well as on its business. And the man who would 
 gather together and guide any group of people with 
 these ideals and growing habits had no idle moments 
 on his hands. 
 
 This whole situation need not be considered at all 
 strange. It is the inevitable penalty of too much speed. 
 It is easier to assemble the parts of a machine than to 
 fit them together; easier to gather a crowd than to 
 direct it. And Chicago was not a crowd, it was a 
 multitude, coming on like a swiftly rising tide. Anyone 
 with an elementary knowledge of human nature could 
 predict that clash and friction would be a part of its 
 early history. 
 
 This showed among the Catholics of Chicago, in 
 spite of the well-known power of Catholic organization. 
 To begin with, many of the Catholics who came to 
 the city did not know their religion well. Twenty years 
 before this time, Father St. Cyr, writing to Bishop 
 Rosati, said, 'While the number of Catholics is large, 
 almost all of them are entirely without knowledge of 
 their religion/ They went to Mass regularly, and gen- 
 erally they respected their priests, but beyond that they 
 were unacquainted with the detailed needs of the 
 Church as an organization. The result was that when 
 things were done which were perfectly in accord with 
 normal Church rules, but strange to them at the time, 
 they showed a tendency in spots to fall back on their 
 T will* privilege, and to go their own way in the mat- 
 ter. This tendency was still in evidence at the time of 
 Damen's first mission in Chicago, in 1856, as the in- 
 cident we have related proves. 
 
In Toung Q^cago 61 
 
 Besides this, there were not nearly enough priests 
 to cope with the increasing work. Those on the ground 
 had to do the best they could, omitting a great part 
 of the individual attention which the Church aims to 
 give her children. The consequence was that a con- 
 siderable number of souls merely drifted with the tide, 
 in great danger of losing their faith altogether. 
 
 Finally the difficulty of nationalities was felt like a 
 cinder in the eye. A melting pot, one would judge, isn't 
 such a pleasant place to toss about in, and the problem 
 of making over many newcomers from various shores 
 into Americans and welding them into harmoniously 
 spiritual co-operation as Catholics, could not be de- 
 scribed as easy of solution. The man who would meet 
 this situation, understand and conquer it, must have a 
 strong faith and determination, a keen business sense, 
 fine tact, a real affection for the people he wished to 
 win, physical strength for hard and constant work, 
 patience to see things through and a personality with 
 a power of strong appeal — a combination of the prac- 
 tical and the visionary, a dreamer of dreams as well as 
 a doer of deeds, a prophet, in a sense, as well as a 
 missionary. 
 
 After Damen's mission in Chicago, Bishop O'Regan 
 judged that this was the man to meet these requisites 
 and he took steps at once to have Damen join the 
 forces already at work in his diocese. While the Jesuit 
 Fathers were still giving their first mission in the city, 
 he had urged them to consider a permanent residence 
 in Chicago and offered them a location anywhere they 
 might choose. Father Damen wrote the Bishop's wish 
 to his Provincial and received in return the answer to 
 go ahead, do what he could, and his judgment in the 
 matter would be sanctioned. Before he returned to St. 
 Louis, he took a survey of Chicago real estate. There 
 was plenty of it to look at, almost nothing else, in fact, 
 in the districts he leaned toward as the site of a pros- 
 
62 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 pective parish. He was not well acquainted with local 
 real estate conditions, but his natural business sense 
 and his practical judgment rose to the surface and in 
 the short time that he had for inquiry he formed a 
 sound estimate of where he was likely to do the most 
 good. Shortly after his return to St. Louis, Father 
 Damen received the following letter from the Bishop : 
 
 Chicago, Illinois, Sept. 15, 1856. 
 
 To Reverend Father Damen, SJ., 
 St. Louis, Missouri. 
 
 Dear Father Damen: 
 
 I have just now written to Father Provincial and I 
 want you to assist me with him that he may grant a re- 
 quest of establishing a House in Chicago. You know its 
 necessity and the prospects before it and hence I have 
 referred to you as one who can give to the Provincial and 
 others all the requisite information on this subject. May I 
 beg of you to do so ? You could not co-operate in a holier 
 work. You would be a most efficient instrument to hold up 
 religion in this city and diocese. Land can be had quite 
 near to the locality you wish for, but in a still better 
 place, at a fair price and in large quantities. In one place, 
 as much as six acres can be had. By buying all this, you 
 would, in one year, have two entirely free. The increased 
 value caused by your establishment would effect this. 
 This is a positive fact. 
 
 I would also request of you not to correspond on this 
 matter with any one whatever in Chicago, except myself, 
 not even with those who, in other respects, would be 
 found most trustworthy. Already Catholics whom you re- 
 gard much are actually speculating on the subject and if 
 they knew you or I had a preference for a particular 
 place, they would soon have it bought up. You will write 
 soon. 
 
 I am sorry that I did not merit your thanks better 
 while you were in Chicago. I can never sufficiently ex- 
 press my esteem for you and your worthy Fathers. 
 
 I would have written sooner to you and to Father 
 Provincial, but I wished to know more about the land. 
 
In Young Q^ ca i° 6 3 
 
 With kindest regards for Father De Smet and the 
 earnest wish of seeing you soon permanently at work 
 in Chicago, where you are most ardently expected, I 
 am, reverend dear Father Damen, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Anthony, 
 Bishop of Chicago and 
 Administrator of Quincy. 
 
 This letter reveals the cordial good feeling that ex- 
 isted between Bishop O' Regan and Father Damen, and 
 the impression the Jesuit mission had made upon not 
 only the Bishop but upon the Catholics of the city. 
 After the sample of his work they had witnessed, they 
 went after him, in characteristic fashion, to 'sign him 
 up' with Chicago for life. And they succeeded. 
 
 In St. Louis, Father Damen was considering seri- 
 ously the financial side of the Chicago proposition. He 
 had no money himself, and any he could procure had to 
 come either from a loan or a donation. He seemed to 
 think that Bishop O'Regan might help him, but the 
 following from the Bishop disillusioned him of that 
 idea: 
 
 As to resources which it would appear you suppose 
 me to have, I have none such, as I think you must know. 
 You are always aware how much we are in debt, and 
 how much must be expected before we can derive any 
 revenue from our churches. We have to erect a hospital, 
 two asylums, a House of Refuge and a House of Mercy ; 
 we must build school houses, priests' houses, buy lots for 
 churches and build churches. I must also at once provide 
 a cemetery, which will cost at least $32,000, without any 
 prospect of revenue in my lifetime. All these wants are 
 known to you, and my inability to supply them, or even a 
 small portion of them. How then, very dear Father, can 
 you talk of my leaving property to my successor? If your 
 Society comes here, I will leave them wealth, a spiritual 
 wealth, practiced by you, and I hope by myself. 
 
64 ^Arnold T>amen y S.J. 
 
 There was no prospect of direct financial support 
 from Chicago. But Father Damen read the future of 
 the city too well to allow this to be an obstacle. Through 
 his Superior, he borrowed enough money to acquire a 
 site, and early in 1857 returned to Chicago to 
 locate one. 
 
 There was some difference of opinion between Bishop 
 O'Regan and Father Damen regarding the choice of 
 the new site, though the Bishop allowed him freedom 
 in the matter. Father Damen steadily looked away from 
 what are called 'desirable localities' toward any spot 
 where he could reach more souls, and especially the 
 poor. Years before, he had written : 'How many more 
 souls might I not have gained for God had I devoted 
 my time amongst the poor instead of the rich. Have I 
 not had experience enough to prove that my spiritual 
 functions to improve the rich are well-nigh lost, 
 whereas my endeavors for the poor are almost always 
 productive of much fruit?' 
 
 Back of all the prospecting and building that Darner, 
 was launching into, always remained fast the guiding 
 idea of the missionary, 'Wherefore he hath anointed 
 me to preach the Gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to 
 heal the contrite of heart/ 
 
 The location that Damen finally decided upon was 
 chosen largely for religious reasons. It was a place 
 where he had Catholics to work for. This appears in the 
 following letter to Father Druyts, his Superior in 
 St. Louis : 
 
 The answer from Philadelphia has come about the 
 Bull's Head property. They will sell at $600 a lot, which 
 would make a total of $24,600 for the 44 lots. The acre 
 which is in litigation cannot be settled yet. With this acre 
 included, there would be 52 lots, and this would make a 
 total of $31,400. Of this, $2,500 would be paid by two 
 Protestant gentlemen toward the improvement. I went 
 out this afternoon and made inquiries about the number 
 
In Toung Chicago 6$ 
 
 of Catholic families in the neighborhood and I could not 
 find a dozen around the place. I therefore concluded that 
 the place should be rejected as one that would not pay 
 for the sacrifices we have to make. Should your rever- 
 ence think differently, telegraph — 'Buy the Bull's Head/ 
 Bishop still continues recommending this place and says 
 that we will regret it ; but I cannot believe that, informed 
 as I am at present about the few Catholics in that vicin- 
 ity. Moreover, here we would have to put up $10,000 im- 
 provements the first year; that is part of the bargain. 1 
 Now I have accepted the Southwest Side, three acres 
 at $5,500 an acre, that is thirty-two lots. Here we will 
 have a large Catholic population at once, sufficient to 
 fill a large church. We can put up a frame church, which 
 will answer the purpose till all the land is paid off. Then 
 it will answer for a school, and the rest of the land, which 
 we can sell, will help us to build the college and the new 
 church. In my opinion it is decidedly the only place we 
 can take here. 
 
 This letter is a good specimen of Damen's corre- 
 spondence. In fact, nearly all his letters that we have 
 concern business matters, and even these reveal the 
 pressure of emergency in every case. They are written 
 on paper of every size, shape and color. There are yel- 
 low letters, blue letters, gray letters. Whatever blank 
 sheet lay nearest at hand was satisfactory. With no 
 overture at all he plunges into the theme, states it 
 clearly and briefly and is done. We surmise that Damen 
 looked on letter-writing as a necessary evil. But in spite 
 of their condensation, they reveal his character. There 
 is an honesty about them, a directness that sometimes 
 verges on bluntness, a sincerity that doesn't know how 
 to beat about the bush, with every now and then a note 
 of heartiness and thankfulness and genuine piety that 
 
 1 The Bull's ±iead was a tavern at the southeast corner of 
 Madison Street and Ogden Avenue, where the Washingtonian 
 Home stood in later years. It was built in 1848 by Matthew Laflin 
 and owed its name to the neighboring cattleyards, the first to be 
 opened in Chicago. 
 
66 ^Arnold T)amen y SJ. 
 
 show him as anything but the hard business man. We 
 can see a good deal of Damen's character in this short 
 letter. The two mistakes he makes in computing ex- 
 penses, is something exceptional with him. He made 
 very few of these in business matters. 
 
 In other ways the letter is entirely Damenesque. He 
 could plan rapidly and yet safely. It is remarkable how 
 he forecasts so quickly just what he is going to do. 
 This brief, but complete outline of future building — ■ 
 the land, the temporary church, a school, a college, a 
 second, permanent church — all this looked like a dream 
 to others at the time. Yet in a dozen years, he had it 
 all finished. He had judged perfectly the pace Chicago 
 was striking, and he planned on a scale to keep up with 
 it. His estimating power was unusually keen. Another 
 quality of Damen appears here that characterized him 
 throughout, namely, his power of sturdy decision when 
 decision was left to him, as well as his care to sus- 
 pend action when he did not have the final word. Thus, 
 Bishop O' Regan had given him freedom of choice of 
 his location and after consideration he had decided 
 against a suggestion of the Bishop. In the matter of 
 spending money for the place, however, he was not de- 
 clared free by his Provincial, who would ultimately 
 be responsible for the debt. So Damen holds himself 
 ready to drop or change his plan at a word from 
 headquarters. 
 
 No difficulties were raised, however. The Bishop con- 
 sented to his location, the Provincial to his investment 
 and Damen was free to begin. The place he chose for 
 the parish buildings lay a block west of the intersec- 
 tion of what was then known as Twelfth Street and 
 Hoosier Avenue, now Roosevelt Road and Blue Island 
 Avenue. And the parish territory was the fifty square 
 miles spreading around that center; in other words, 
 nearly the whole west and southwest side of Chicago. 
 
 A curious fact is that neither Bishop O' Regan nor 
 
In Toung C^cago 67 
 
 Father Damen were aware that they were incorporat- 
 ing into the parish the site of Father Marquette's little 
 church of almost two centuries before. On the twelfth 
 of December, 1674, Marquette had built his cabin at 
 what is now the junction of Damen Avenue and the 
 Drainage Canal. There for several months he cele- 
 brated Mass daily and administered the sacraments to 
 some stray Indians and to his French companions. 
 Marquette was thus, informally, the first pastor of 
 the district that, two hundred years later, Damen fell 
 heir to as the first officially appointed pastor of the 
 Holy Family Church. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A PARISH ON THE PRAIRIE 
 
 AVAST expanse of prairie, stretching west and 
 south as far as the eye could reach; in summer 
 rippled with wild grasses, in winter piled with drifts 
 of snow, in spring and autumn sodden with rains 
 slowly seeping into the earth ; scattered irregularly here 
 and there, singly or huddled in small groups, gaunt 
 wooden houses standing forlorn ; thin outlines of roads 
 forming between strategic points, winding every way 
 through deep dust or heavy mud; a flat, uninterest- 
 ing, and to the chance observer, a totally unprofitable 
 terrain where one might temporarily lodge under pres- 
 sure, but which none would consider as a permanent 
 dwelling place — this was Father Damen's choice of 
 ground for the new parish, and here he was already 
 planning to build what would be at its completion the 
 third largest church in America. 
 
 It did seem an impossible proposition. A wise con- 
 servative would call it, at best, a mere gamble on the 
 future. Where were the people? Only one square mile 
 of the fifty had any Catholics and they were but a 
 handful. Where was the money? He had a few bor- 
 rowed thousands for the land, it is true, but where were 
 the buildings to come from and where the necessary 
 revenue for all the overhead expense? Even in pros- 
 perous times these questions would pose the hardiest 
 investor, but in this very year of 1857, tne great panic 
 that swept across the country was in full gallop. Money 
 went burrowing underground; business stopped dead; 
 the unemployed were wandering all over the country 
 
 68 
 
c/f Tarish on the Trairie 69 
 
 looking for any kind of work; restlessness came over 
 everybody, with a tendency to scatter rather than to 
 settle; discontent was spreading fast. The common 
 phrase of the day was Very hard times/ Men who 
 held any money at all gripped it still tighter, and men 
 who hadn't, reached hungrily out to get it. The idea 
 of anybody giving money away for any purpose what- 
 ever seemed preposterous. And there was Damen, al- 
 ready in debt, standing away off in the middle of a 
 prairie, holding out his hands and expecting people to 
 come and put money into them. It looked foolish. 
 
 But Damen wasn't a bit foolish. He had resources 
 which neither Bishop O' Regan nor his superiors in St. 
 Louis suspected. All his life heretofore he had acted 
 under orders. Even as pastor of St. Francis Xavier's 
 Church in St. Louis he had followed along traditional 
 lines. Now he was thrown upon his own initiative, fac- 
 ing an objective that was, apparently, hopeless of attain- 
 ment. He had to give a local habitation and a name to 
 a parish, almost out of airy nothing. A few straggling 
 houses on a prairie, a scattered handful of people hav- 
 ing all they could do to earn but a living, debt hanging 
 over his head and a panic eating the country — these 
 were the materials to be somehow metamorphosed into 
 a great church, a high school and college, a group of 
 Catholic grade schools, a population thickly crowding 
 the west side of Chicago. He rose to the occasion and 
 followed through without ever taking a backward step. 
 We have observed of the traditional Hollander, that 
 when hard pressed he will suddenly drop his cloak 
 of stolidity and wave the sword of romance. And no 
 one of his countrymen was ever more typical of this 
 trait of the Hollander than Damen. From this time on, 
 the Luctor et Enter go slogan of the Dutch could be 
 used to describe Damen individually. Here was the 
 turning point of his life. Whatever of diffidence, hesi- 
 tation, timidity he had about him fell away from him, 
 
70 JLmold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 and a romantic aggressiveness possessed their place. 
 Romance did not overbalance him, however. His un- 
 usual, practical business instinct enabled him always to 
 keep his feet. He moved continuously and swiftly but 
 never lost his sense of direction. Imagination never led 
 him on any blind hurryings after will-o'-the-wisps. 
 Whatever mistakes he made in his work were merely 
 technical ones. There were no wrecks on his main lines. 
 Romance, therefore, with Damen, had nothing in it 
 of sentimentality, no plaintive pondering upon the mys- 
 tery of the past. He wasted no time in brooding over 
 days that were no more, nor lost himself in vague 
 dreams of cloud-capped palaces in the future. He was 
 a priest alone on a prairie, and his romance was the 
 prosaic labor of bringing scattered sheep together into 
 a fold. In this business he made no movement at hap- 
 hazard, or by guesswork. The site he chose was the 
 outcome of his own shrewd observation. He had re- 
 jected the spot suggested by the Bishop only after thor- 
 ough study of the Catholic situation in Chicago. For 
 his new location he had gone out and mingled among 
 the few people settled about, and his judgment was 
 that here was the type he was looking for as the solid 
 foundation stones for his parish. Most of them were 
 Irish, and all of them, whatever their other defects and 
 handicaps, had strong religious faith. They were think- 
 ing, too, of providing for their children the education 
 that they had been denied themselves. Damen possessed 
 the gift of estimating character in the group as well as 
 in the individual. He saw at once that this combina- 
 tion of faith and the love of learning was bound to 
 evolve into a fruitful and tenacious Catholicity and 
 immediately he picked this as his starting point. Old 
 residents of Chicago wondered at his decision, feared 
 he was making a mistake, foreboded pessimistically, but 
 Damen stood by his first intuition. The event proved 
 him to be correct. 
 
c/f Tarish on the Trdrie 71 
 
 In fact, it was his intimate contact with the little 
 group that revealed to Damen the immense possibilities 
 latent in these people and gave the first impulse to 
 the spread of his original plan. They were enthusiastic, 
 generous, attached to the priest. It is the spirit that 
 makes for growth — crescit eundo. Damen proved that 
 it is the wise priest who learns from his people. Un- 
 consciously they were outlining for him the future of 
 their parish. Damen realized that the outlines were 
 spacious, that they were just the people to respond to 
 his ideals. He took the cue and set himself to develop 
 a great tree from the tiny mustard seed. 
 
 In March of 1857 tne sl ^ e °f tne new parish had been 
 chosen. In May of the following year, Father Damen, 
 In company with Father Charles Truyens, arrived in 
 Chicago from St. Louis to begin the work definitely. 
 He carried with him a memorandum of instructions 
 from his superior upon which he had written, 'Remem- 
 ber why we go to Chicago, viz., A.M.D.G. — for the 
 greater glory of God, the good of religion, the good 
 of souls. Let us then have the best of intentions and 
 often renew them/ 
 
 The building and organization of a parish has sapped 
 the vitality of many an American priest. Apart from 
 the work of choosing a site, of the letting of contracts 
 and of supervising the actual construction, the crux of 
 the enterprise is the providing of money. Our churches 
 are not endowed. Seldom does any wealthy man build a 
 church, or even a notable part of it, for a parish. It is 
 the small-income personnel that have built the churches 
 of America, and while this makes the pastor proud of 
 his people, it places a heavy burden upon him. He must 
 make large payments in lump sums and these he has 
 to gather together dollar by dollar. He cannot dip the 
 bucket into the well and draw it up filled. For him there 
 is no well. His only resource is to put the bucket out of 
 doors and watch it till it fills, drop by drop. And in 
 
72 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 order to get the drops he must also create the rain. In 
 other words he has to impress on the people the need 
 he has for meeting the parish bills. He has to do that 
 very uncongenial and distasteful thing to him, 'talk 
 money/ 
 
 Considering all the priest's responsibilities, it is 
 rather a wonder that the whole building process doesn't 
 get on his nerves much oftener than actually happens. 
 The essential work of a priest isn't building at all. It 
 is the spiritual care of his parish, the individual atten- 
 tion that each of his flock requires. Theoretically, that 
 is the only thing he was trained and ordained for and, 
 living up to that calling, his days and nights are full. 
 Real estate, architecture, finance, are all added burdens. 
 They are necessary preliminaries to his work, it is true, 
 and for that reason he does not shirk them. But he 
 always feels that they are things to be got out of the 
 way before he can settle down to his special duties. 
 They are a clog to his ideals, a drag on his priestly 
 activities. Building plans, bills and brick-piles wall in 
 his spiritual horizon. Nevertheless, he tries to do both 
 together. It often exhausts him and it always bothers 
 him. He supports the entire money responsibility, which 
 the individual parishioner is but vaguely conscious of. 
 And yet the pastor is building for the parish and not 
 for himself. Not an inch of it can he will away at his 
 death. 
 
 This effort to get the parish rapidly established for 
 spiritual work, under financial conditions that keep him 
 asking large numbers of people for small contribu- 
 tions, is what puts the strain on the priest and wears 
 him out. It seems harsh to criticize any priest working 
 under such a handicap. 
 
 It was precisely such a situation that Father Damen 
 faced at his start in Chicago. In his case we should 
 hardly call it a situation. It was more like an extremity. 
 If the average priest nowadays has to face difficulties 
 
J[ Tarish on the Trairie 73 
 
 more than sufficient, he has at least something to begin 
 with. His people are more numerous ; they are grouped 
 in definite territory ; they have building traditions back 
 of them; they have had usually some Catholic training; 
 they have some money. Damen had not any of these re- 
 sources. His was a tiny flock scattered over fifty square 
 miles, that had never a chance for accurate Catholic 
 training, had never built a church or school, had no 
 money and no near prospect of getting any. The panic 
 had dried finances at their source. There was no money 
 visible anywhere. 
 
 However, Damen had studied his little army and 
 had made a close estimate of their fighting qualities. 
 They had not been unacquainted with trouble. At home, 
 in Ireland, they had endured the slings and arrows of 
 outrageous fortune until they had been driven across 
 the world. All the advantages of leisure, of culture 
 had been systematically cut off from them. Every ma- 
 terial opportunity was strangled by one cruel device 
 after another. Ownership and initiative were impos- 
 sible. When famine visited them, they were deliberately 
 neglected, until a million of them died. The survivors 
 began to leave in large numbers, naturally choosing 
 America, where they could hope to get a foothold. 
 They arrived here apparently completely destitute, but 
 they brought more with them than they knew. They 
 brought the genuine root of all culture and progress, 
 the faith, which the ax of persecution had failed to 
 reach. This vital antidote to decay they had never lost, 
 and as soon as they were given the chance to lead nor- 
 mal human lives, it showed its power. Damen saw all 
 this clearly and, though his band was small, he trusted 
 its aggressive fighting strength. Tied hand and foot, 
 they had won their way to freedom. What could they 
 not achieve now that they had at least a clear road 
 ahead of them ! We can see from Damen's letters that 
 
74 ^Arnold T>amen y S.J. 
 
 this was the mainspring of his confidence, the spirit 
 of faith that he felt surging around him. A great fighter 
 himself, he had great fighters with him. Together, he 
 believed they would dare any situation, barehanded. 
 
 The bare hands in this instance meant empty pock- 
 ets. As far as money was concerned, the parish was in 
 a vacuum. But Damen's vision of the big church, 
 schools and college would not down. With his gallant 
 light brigade back of him he felt that he could do it. 
 And so, without a single backward glance, they gal- 
 loped together straight into the Valley of Debt to 
 create the romance of the Holy Family parish and, 
 incidentally, to build up half a great city. 
 
 The story of this romance, however, would hardly 
 compete in color or dramatic movement with the stories 
 of Walter Scott. The chivalric setting of tourney and 
 of battlefield must be dimmed by the drab and prosaic 
 clash of bills payable versus cash. Lance and armor 
 must be set aside for lumber and nails, the moated 
 castle for the wooden structure that is called a church, 
 but sprawls like a warehouse. Yet we must affirm, as 
 we look on at this latter-day contest, that the age of 
 chivalry is far from dead. From the merely scenic 
 point of view, everything is missing here. But the very 
 absence of the spectacular heightens the effect. The 
 little band of spiritual crusaders, altogether unconscious 
 of anything extraordinary in their action, were never- 
 theless setting out to fight for the Holy Land. And 
 their objective was to create it in their midst. They were 
 not solicitous of what they should eat, or what they 
 should drink, or wherewith they should be clothed. 
 They sought first the kingdom of God, and their faith 
 told them that whatever they needed would be added 
 to them. 
 
 Damen went ahead, always more confident, vigorous, 
 alert, efficient. Wherever he moved, his band followed. 
 
c/f Tarts h on the Trairie 75 
 
 The letters he wrote during this early period of storm 
 and stress would be amusing if it were not that they 
 reveal him in such desperate straits. Nothing can be 
 so pestiferously wearing as a swarm of debts, each with 
 its separate sting. Like a plague of locusts, they deso- 
 late the soul and leave it a waste. Damen had hardly 
 started his campaign when his distress becomes evi- 
 dent. Checks, interest, creditors, rebates, payments, 
 bank accounts, bills, revenues, contracts, real estate, 
 panic, loans, mortgages, all these, intermingled with 
 stone, bricks, lumber, windows, roofs, floors, go flying 
 through his letters like debris in a tornado. One won- 
 ders where he ever got time even to say his prayers. 
 Yet he keeps the boat nosing into the waves, steadily 
 bailing with one hand and paddling with the other. 
 There is never the least sign of quitting. 
 
 In March, 1857, Damen had chosen the site for his 
 church. On July twelfth the little wooden building was 
 solemnly blessed by Bishop Duggan. Immediately it 
 proved too small. The people began to come to him in 
 such crowds that he had to enlarge the church. These 
 comparatively light additional debts staggered his fi- 
 nances. In October, he writes to the Provincial : 
 
 Swift, you are aware, has suspended business. Most 
 people say that he is broke. 
 
 Almost all the Catholics who deposited with him have 
 lost considerably by him. This works against us. Two 
 days before he closed, I drew out $1,000 and left with 
 him $207. However I will get it all. The man who delivers 
 stone to our building has to pay him $2,800 and he has 
 taken my check on Swift, to which Swift agreed, so that 
 I lose only the interest. We find it next to impossible to 
 collect money at present. The people are still afraid in 
 consequence of the many failures all over the country. 
 Still, up to this time, Chicago has kept up better than St. 
 Louis, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. There have 
 been less failures here than elsewhere. 
 
y6 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 A letter from Father De Smet, written in this same 
 month, gives a bird's-eye view of the financial atmos- 
 phere in the United States at that time. 
 
 The money crisis in the United States [he writes from 
 St. Louis] is awful. The banks of New York started 
 the ball and it has rolled with lightning speed all over the 
 Union. From every quarter it is now rolled back to the 
 great metropolis of the east, and daily we hear of noth- 
 ing but failures of banks and of commercial houses. In 
 St. Louis six banks have suspended and many prominent 
 commercial houses have failed. 
 
 Damen's dream of the large Gothic church persisted, 
 however, and he pursued it with such vigor that in a 
 few months he had subscriptions to the amount of 
 fifty thousand dollars. T get along pretty well/ he wrote 
 to the Provincial, 'and people are astonished that I 
 can get money at all.' 
 
 Meantime, after finishing the temporary church, he 
 turned his attention to providing a Catholic school for 
 the children of the parish. He started by adding two 
 wings to the wooden church. These were used as class- 
 rooms during the week, and on Sundays were opened 
 for the church overflow, which had already made his 
 first building too small. One of the wings was used as a 
 classroom for the girls, the other for the boys. He 
 employed Catholic lay teachers to begin with, as then 
 there was no opportunity to secure Religious. 
 
 The idea of the Catholic school moving hand in hand 
 with the Church does not strike us today as being any- 
 thing unusual. It is now the normal status in all parishes 
 that can support a school. But then it was by no means 
 common. Partly by reason of poverty, partly because 
 the public schools were thought sufficient, not many 
 parishes had schools. The idea that schools without 
 any religion meant ultimately the decay of all religion 
 had not penetrated the average Catholic mind with suf- 
 ficient force to make Catholics take the practical step 
 
<tA Tarish on the Trairie 77 
 
 of defending the faith at that danger point. Damen was 
 among the first to see what a school system without 
 religion must come to, and he provided against the 
 danger right from the beginning. We shall see his 
 schools grow until they become the most complete sys- 
 tem of any parish schools in the world. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 BUILDING THE CHURCH 
 
 THE permanent church that Damen now under- 
 took to build was a structure in heavy Gothic, 
 one hundred and eighty-six feet in length, one hundred 
 and twenty-five in width, with a nave sixty-one feet in 
 height. It was to be the third largest church in America 
 at the time. It was to stand in the middle of the prairie. 
 I remember old-timers in Chicago telling how they 
 came to visit the church from the south side, crossing 
 the river at Canal and Eighteenth Streets and then 
 taking a short cut over the prairie, a distance of a 
 mile and a half. To attempt this church here and now 
 looked like an impractical, not to say foolhardy, under- 
 taking, a clear case of overbuilding. Indeed, Damen 
 was told so, even by members of his own Community. 
 In one of his letters he mentions to the Provincial that 
 he has just been warned by one of his fellow Jesuits 
 that there was 'no sense in building a church of that 
 size, miles from anywhere.' 
 
 As for money, it was a minus quantity. He began 
 on borrowed money and he had to depend on collec- 
 tions to carry on. And collections in those days did not 
 mean subscriptions. Wages were low, work was scarce, 
 money dear, the panic was still rampant. It all meant 
 that Damen had to gather his funds bit by bit, like a 
 man trying to fill a huge reservoir, a thimbleful at a 
 time. Nevertheless he persisted in his conviction, stood 
 by his guns and went at it, often with the sense, no 
 doubt, that he was back in Holland keeping out the 
 sea by the old Dutch method of poldering. 
 
 78 
 
'Building the Church 79 
 
 His vision turned out to be the true one. The higher 
 the church went the more people crowded into the ter- 
 ritory, built their homes and turned in to co-operate 
 with their pastor. Damen kept pace with both the people 
 and the work. He made the personal acquaintance of 
 each family as it came into the parish and he never 
 forgot any of them. He had the valuable gift of being 
 able to remember the names, faces and circumstances 
 of every person he met. Besides, he had quick intuition 
 to judge particular fitness for the various kinds of 
 work he needed help in and he never was in the least 
 shy in asking anybody to step forward and lend a 
 hand. He had a way with him that brought everybody 
 into the company and made them feel glad to be there. 
 The result was that through all the hard times of 
 scraping money together, a swing and a heartiness 
 went along with it that created a strong family feeling 
 in the Holy Family parish. They all caught the idea 
 that they were banded together for a cause and the 
 rallying point was their new church. 
 
 With this spirit of cheerful unity possessing the 
 parish, Damen proceeded to organize what was prob- 
 ably the first 'drive' on a large scale for any church in 
 Chicago. He called for help in his collecting and a large 
 number of men offered their services. They were 
 divided into 'Regulars' and 'Rovers,' the former to 
 cover the seventeen districts into which Damen had 
 divided the parish and the latter to go anywhere and 
 gather from any field they could legitimately enter. 
 This idea of the Rovers would not get very far in the 
 present organized system of Chicago churches, where 
 each parish is rightfully expected to finance itself 
 within its own limits. But seventy-five years ago con- 
 ditions were different. Parish limits were not so 
 definite ; Chicago was a small city and there was a more 
 general spirit of 'hands across the town' than we can 
 have nowadays. People knew each other better and a 
 
80 Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 difficulty in one place could win the interest of all the 
 others, both priests and people. 
 
 Damen kept for himself the main task of providing 
 funds for the church structure. To his 'Volunteers/ 
 as they were called, was assigned the series of special 
 drives. First a drive for the stained-glass windows, 
 then for the bell, the altars, the school. All contribu- 
 tions were welcome, down to the widow's mite, and 
 necessarily there was a preponderance of these. 
 
 The parish was a busy hum of collecting, building, 
 praying. For the spiritual life of the people grew with 
 the church. 
 
 'The old west side, I love it P said one of the oldest 
 surviving parishioners recently. 'Those were the happy 
 days, when everyone knew everybody else and we got 
 our great thrill out of building churches and schools. 
 We didn't have much money then, but every bit we 
 could spare we gave. Our money went out, but when 
 we saw the buildings coming in one after another and 
 our people and children filling them, we felt that we 
 got more than we gave/ 
 
 Father Damen was all over the parish, at first on 
 foot, but afterward, when he found it impossible to 
 cover the fifty square miles of his colony in such slow 
 fashion, he got a horse and buggy, which was high 
 speed in those Chicago days. Even then, however, his 
 traveling was no sinecure. It was never a letting out at 
 full speed and clattering down a boulevard, Derby 
 fashion. The deep Chicago streets, deep in mud or 
 deep in dust, forbade it. The buggy often sank to its 
 hubs in the mire; or climbed and bumped over roads 
 that often looked like a succession of shell-holes; or 
 tilted dangerously at the edge of formidable water- 
 filled ditches that flanked the streets on either side. 
 Driving was not an entertainment; it was an adven- 
 ture. A good driver had to be something of an acrobat. 
 The buggy seat swung about like a trapeze. But, like 
 
'Building the Church 81 
 
 the Fairy in Midsummer Night's Dream, though some- 
 what heavier, Damen did wander everywhere, meeting 
 and greeting everyone on the way, and missing no 
 chance, financial or spiritual, of helping the church and 
 the parish. 
 
 He was easy to meet. There was a simple, direct, 
 whole-hearted affability in his manner and address that 
 put young and old at once on familiar terms with him. 
 Dignity, but no pomp. Amid the thousand big and 
 little things he had to do, he never showed signs of 
 hurry or fret. His inner troubles and worries stayed 
 there. They never got to the surface. No matter how 
 debts hung over him and bills pressed for payment, he 
 constantly gave the impression of a serene reserve 
 strength that could ride over everything. He seemed 
 always to be at his best. This poise inspired confidence 
 into his people. Anything that he said ought to be 
 done, they were sure it could be done and they were 
 the ones who would do it. And with the impetus de- 
 rived from Damen's spirit, this remarkable people car- 
 ried through a program of building which we believe 
 is unique among Catholic parishes the world over. 
 Within less than twenty years they built and paid for 
 two churches, the Holy Family and the Sacred Heart 
 churches, with a parish residence for each, eight grade 
 schools, holding six thousand children, a convent high 
 school for girls, a large sodality hall, a home for work- 
 ing girls, and gave strong support to a high school and 
 a college for boys. They realized Father Darnen's 
 vision to the last detail. Sixteen buildings in twenty- 
 years, done by people who worked every day for their 
 living! If there is anywhere in the Church a finer ex- 
 ample of practical and aggressive faith, we have not 
 heard of it. 
 
 The center of this great system was the Holy Family 
 church, which Damen was now beginning. He knew 
 that out of this church would derive the power which 
 
82 ^Arnold T)amen, S.J. 
 
 would enable his people to do the rest. He focused all 
 his energies here, and he needed every ounce he had. 
 Though none of the parish suspected it, most of the 
 time he was only one step ahead of the bill collector. 
 The people's donations were surprisingly large for the 
 time and circumstances, but the expenses were even 
 more surprising. Bazaars, entertainments, festivals, he 
 tried them all, but the waters kept rising still. He 
 raffled his horse and buggy and took to walking, but 
 the ghost of debt walked right on his heels. At last he 
 was driven to appeal outside for help. Some of his old 
 St. Louis friends had made him gifts of property. This 
 he kept in the very toe of the stocking as his last re- 
 serve. He was cutting his anchor when he let go of 
 these. But he came to it finally. He writes to Father 
 Druyts, the Provincial in St. Louis: 
 
 The house is getting ready for plastering and no money 
 yet. It is too bad. 
 
 There is no money in Chicago. I regret I signed the 
 contract ; but it is too late now. We have to go on, and I 
 think it providential that we signed the contract so 
 thoughtlessly, for never could we build the church so low 
 as we get it for; we must only exert ourselves and rely 
 on Providence. It will be necessary to sell the lot of Mrs. 
 Hunt and borrow some money, or sell Jane Graham's 
 property; I will have money enough till the end of July, 
 but then I must necessarily get some. I have borrowed a 
 thousand dollars here at ten per cent per annum, payable 
 five years from date, on the property which has been given 
 to me here. Last Monday week we had Confirmation in 
 our church. Two hundred and fifty persons were con- 
 firmed. We had about one thousand Communions in the 
 morning, or perhaps more. Our congregation is really do- 
 ing wonders; it fills us with consolation. 
 
 This letter reveals how Damen's mind was being buf- 
 feted about. In one sentence he regrets he signed the 
 contract, and in the next he thinks it providential that 
 he signed it. Borrowing and selling, debts a month to 
 
"Building the Qhurch 83 
 
 run and five years to run, it is clear that he was here 
 desperately reaching about in all directions for a way 
 of escape. It is not surprising that he remarks in an- 
 other letter, 'I am so extremely busy that I hardly know 
 what to do first.' But he leans at last on the consoling 
 work he sees going on about him in spiritual things 
 and ends on a note of courage. 
 
 A little later, on June 16, 1858, he writes again: 
 
 Please send me the remainder of the money of the 
 festival as soon as possible, for I have to make a great 
 many payments. If you cannot get more than $1,200 
 for Mrs. Hunt's lot, it is better to sell it for that, because 
 I will be awfully pushed for money ; but we just trust in 
 Divine Providence. We have prayed so much, and as it 
 is for God's greater glory, I feel confident God will help 
 us. We have just opened our free schools. We have al- 
 ready three hundred children and they are pouring in 
 fast. 
 
 Again, on July 19, 1858 : 
 
 Now, dear Father, try to act cleverly for Chicago. Give 
 me $6,000 for Jane Graham's property and I will never 
 ask you again for a cent, for Chicago. Had I $6,000 I 
 could make all payments and put the roof on the church. 
 . . . Had not times turned out as they have done, I would 
 have plenty of money to meet all the obligations. But no 
 one could have foreseen these difficulties. 
 
 As his distress increased and he saw no hope of get- 
 ting help near home, he turns at last to the General. 
 After giving an account of the work already done and 
 the rapidity and volume of its increase, he continues : 
 
 Now, Very Reverend dear Father General, my object 
 in writing to you is not only to give your Paternity an 
 account of what has been done here, but also to beg, nay, 
 to implore your Reverence to assist us in the building of 
 our church. Had I seven thousand dollars, I could put 
 
84 Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 the roof on the church this year and get along without 
 any trouble. Do, then, my Very Reverend dear Father 
 General, do, for God's sake, for the good of souls and 
 the glory of God, do help us to build this church which 
 will be an honor to religion and a means most efficacious 
 to promote the glory of God and the good of souls. 
 
 Probably by writing to the Propagation of the Faith 
 you might help us, or perhaps you might effect a loan for 
 us at moderate interest. There is here sufficient means to 
 pay off the capital and interest by degrees. For as I have 
 said already the real estate, worth twenty thousand dol- 
 lars, could at any time pay this debt which your Reverence 
 might contract for us. I will be most prompt in paying 
 either the interest or the capital which your Reverence 
 may be pleased to send us, should it not be a donation to 
 the church. 
 
 If times had not become so bad as they are here now, 
 I would have no occasion to beg youi Reverence for 
 anything. But times have turned in such a manner that 
 there is no money to be had at any reasonable interest. 
 Had I foreseen the difficulty of money matters I would 
 not have signed any contracts, but things then looked 
 prosperous. Father Provincial cannot help me, for he has 
 his own difficulties, nor is he involved by my doings. No 
 one is involved but myself and I hope the Society will 
 make some exertions to help me out. In truth, seven thou- 
 sand dollars (the amount required to put the roof on the 
 church to preserve the walls from being injured by the 
 weather) is a safe debt when there is thrice that amount 
 of land to pay for it. 
 
 Please, then, Very Reverend dear Father, use your in- 
 fluence in our behalf. Could I stop the work I would do 
 so, but the contracts have been signed and there is no pos- 
 sibility of retracting. 
 
 In our Community everything goes on very regularly 
 and harmoniously. The rules are pretty well observed. 
 We are united and live in great peace and fraternal 
 charity. This residence consists of three Fathers, one 
 Brother and a postulant. 
 
 The revenues of our present wooden church amount to 
 over five thousand dollars yearly. One thousand is suffi- 
 
'Bmlding the C^ urc ^ 8 5 
 
 cient to support us and pay our expenses. The rest is 
 entirely devoted to the building of the new church. 
 
 Father Beckx wrote in reply, sympathizing with 
 Damen's difficulties, but saying that it was impossible 
 for him to lend any money to Damen, as he had none. 
 
 Six months later we find the battle still going on. 
 On April 15, 1859, Father Damen writes to the 
 Provincial : 
 
 Times in Chicago are very bad; no money among the 
 people. I have paid off all our debts which were due at 
 this time, and have $400 over for the July payment. I 
 hope to get money for that payment, but the Lord only 
 knows how I shall get ready for the other payments, for 
 there is no prospect of times getting better till we have 
 a better crop. 
 
 Five weeks later, May 24, 1859: 
 
 I am working day and night in order to pay off the 
 $5,000 which is to be paid here this summer, and you 
 know well enough that this is no trifle in these hard times. 
 We think it better to make a sacrifice and have the church 
 finished and do more good and secure a larger revenue 
 than to leave the church unfinished. I have already bought 
 22,000 feet of lumber and paid for it, because lumber is 
 rising in price. The architect is preparing things and in a 
 few days I will give out the contract for plastering; for 
 we have no time to lose if we wish to have it done before 
 the cold weather sets in. 
 
 Our congregation is doing wonders. We have the exer- 
 cises of the month of May at eight o'clock in the morning 
 and the church is full. We have them again at 7:30 at 
 night for those who cannot come in the morning and the 
 church and schoolrooms are overflowing. On Sundays 
 hundreds of people are obliged to go away, not being 
 able to get into the church or schools. 
 
 During May he writes again: 
 
 I am sure you will be glad to hear that I have paid the 
 July payment of $1,690.72 to the stone company; by pay- 
 
86 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 ing it now, I get $23.74 discount, that is, one per cent a 
 month. The floor of the church has been raised. In a week 
 hence they take out of the wall the cracks under the 
 transept windows. When will Brother Hutton be here? 
 We want him badly. 
 
 Please let me know whether you will accept the Jane 
 Graham property for $7,000, because then I can give 
 out the contract for the plastering. Do say yes, for the 
 love of God and the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
 These letters show us that Father Damen not only 
 gathered the money for his building but attended to 
 all the details of payment and construction. He was 
 treasurer, accountant, let the contracts and supervised 
 the construction. His ability in matters of business was 
 distinctly more than ordinary. It is plain too, that he 
 was careful of expenditures and scrupulous about pay- 
 ing his debts to the penny. He kept always looking 
 ahead, closely estimating just how far he could go with 
 his visible resources, and daring to go to the very limit 
 of those resources. The accuracy of his business judg- 
 ment invariably enabled him to skirt the danger edge 
 and come out on solid ground. More than one of the 
 men who dealt with him declared that he was the best 
 business man they had ever met. His decisions were 
 rapid, final and nearly always correct. 
 
 I think your charges too high [he writes to an archi- 
 tect bidder]. I can have very good architects in Chicago 
 for one half of what you charge. I therefore give you 
 notice not to do anything more to the plans or specifica- 
 tions till you receive other instructions either from myself 
 or from Father Druyts. 
 
 Occasionally a piece of poor work would slip past 
 his watchful eye, but upon detection, he immediately 
 took decisive remedies. 
 
 Please send for X. and tell him to come and repair the 
 roof. It is truly a bad job. Several slates have been blown 
 off, because some of them have but one nail, and others 
 
"Bmlding the Church 87 
 
 nails without heads. The lead also has been partly blown 
 off, because it was not properly fastened to the roof. The 
 gutters have been cut through by the slate which was 
 blown off. To prevent the gutters being cut more, we have 
 been obliged to lay boards in the gutters. I will not pay 
 him, nor give him any notes, till things are satisfactorily 
 settled here, and till he has satisfied his creditors here. 
 
 As a rule, however, the work done for Father Damen 
 was well done, because he had the business intuition 
 of choosing capable workmen, not easy to find seventy- 
 five years ago in Chicago. Whenever he discovered one 
 who suited him, he kept persistently after him to en- 
 roll him among his workers. In one of the above letters, 
 we read his mention of Brother Hutton. It is only one 
 of many similar requests made in letter after letter, 
 all in the same brief, quiet, almost identical phrases, 
 showing that he was still doggedly on the trail. Brother 
 Heilers was another he kept asking the Provincial for 
 in the same fashion. With these two men helping him 
 on the church, he would have a skillful carpenter in 
 the one and a trained mechanic, architect and builder 
 in the other. He got both of them, and between them 
 they directed all the early construction work of the 
 parish. 
 
 One day as he was going about the parish, he ob- 
 served two men loading a delivery wagon with the old- 
 fashioned wooden Indian cigar signs. At a glance he 
 noted that though the Indians were wooden, the quality 
 of the carving was far from that. Father Damen intro- 
 duced himself and discovered Mr. Anthony Buscher, 
 an artist in wood carving from Baden, Germany. An- 
 thony had come from his native land to earn money in 
 America and had found the art atmosphere in Chicago 
 rather foggy. He had fallen from his high estate as a 
 sculptor in wood to a mere hewer of wooden cigar 
 signs. It was not a difficult task for Father Damen to 
 restore him to his blissful seat in the world of art, and 
 
88 ^Arnold Ttamen, SJ. 
 
 the beautiful high altar of the Holy Family Church, 
 still holding its place as a triumph of fine wood carving, 
 is the result of that chance meeting. 
 
 Another artistic find of Father Damen's was Louis 
 Wisner. He discovered Wisner in that most unlikely 
 habitat of Art, the purlieus of Fourteenth and Halsted 
 Streets. Wisner was a Lutheran and a Freemason. 
 How Damen came to find him we do not know. But 
 it is probable that it was while making pastoral calls 
 about the parish. Wisner had a Catholic wife and six 
 children, all Catholics, and Damen no doubt visited 
 them as he did all the members of his flock. Wisner, 
 like Buscher, was a wood carver of the first rank, and 
 Damen gave him the contract of carving the Com- 
 munion railing of the church. There are seventeen 
 panels in this railing, which extends across the church, 
 each one an original creation, all of them Eucharistic 
 in character and treatment. It was a novel subject for 
 Wisner, but while the work was on, Damen visited 
 him every day and guided him with suggestions. The 
 completed railing is a masterpiece, perhaps as fine as 
 any piece of wood carving in the United States. It has 
 been studied and admired by artists from all parts of 
 the country. 
 
 Chicago was hardly an art center in the 'fifties, and 
 Damen was not so fortunate in happening on painters 
 as on wood carvers. For the Stations of the Cross and 
 other paintings he would take no risk. His thoughts 
 turned to Europe. In a letter to Father Beckx, the 
 General of the Jesuits, after describing eloquently the 
 growing parish in Chicago, he continues : 
 
 I know how dangerous it is for a religious to ask 
 anything for himself, but I have no fear in asking for 
 things that are for the common good. I will give a proof 
 of this to your Paternity. Since you cannot help us in a 
 pecuniary way, I will ask you to send us a gift of four- 
 teen pictures of the Way of the Cross for our new church. 
 
'Building the Qhurch 89 
 
 I know that your Paternity will not refuse this, for I 
 know the great interest you take in our work in Chicago. 
 You will probably be able to get them at a bargain in 
 Rome. And we have a Brother there who is an artist. He 
 might do them for us. These pictures should be three or 
 four feet wide. I hope they will be worthy of the General 
 of the Society of Jesus. 
 
 What do you think of this, Very Reverend Father? 
 Don't shake your head, now, but say, 'Oh, yes, that is 
 right. I am going to send something beautiful to Chicago, 
 to excite the admiration and sustain the piety and the 
 devotion of all these good people and at the same time con- 
 sole my dear sons in the Lord.' 
 
 Damen had good artistic taste and from his travels 
 he remembered beautiful things. When he was building 
 St. Ignatius College a few years later he recalled paint- 
 ings he had seen. He writes to his Provincial : 
 
 Please write for me to the Provincial of Belgium to 
 beg of him to allow the Brother painter of his Province 
 to copy for our new St. Ignatius College the paintings 
 which hang in the sanctuary of our church in Brussels, 
 representing Blessed Canisius before the Cardinal and 
 the Emperor, and Blessed Berchmans before the Blessed 
 Virgin, making the vow to defend the Immaculate Con- 
 ception. The former Provincial had promised me this 
 when I was in Belgium ; I, of course, paying all expenses. 
 
 The Provincial in St. Louis was not always able to 
 keep pace with Damen's speed. The extent of his plans 
 seemed abnormal and the ways Damen went plunging 
 over the crest of one debt wave into the trough of 
 another kept his Superior on the anxious seat through 
 these first years of building. There were evident re- 
 luctances in approving of Damen's emergency ideas, 
 refusals to make him loans, suggestions that he save 
 by altering the work begun. Damen managed to get 
 through all these entanglements. On the subject of al- 
 tering the plans Damen writes in answer to the 
 Provincial : 
 
90 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 Chicago, June 16, 1858. 
 
 Very Reverend dear Father Provincial: 
 
 I have received your favor. It is out of the question to 
 reduce the stone work at present. The contracts were 
 signed in St. Louis. A great deal of the work is done 
 already. About one hundred and fifty men are at work 
 on the church and of course no changes can be made. If 
 we do they will bring in bills for extras afterwards. . . . 
 
 Damen here is clearly annoyed at the impractical idea 
 of reshaping plans in midstream. It was like asking 
 the leader of an orchestra to change the key in the 
 middle of a movement. The Provincial's point of view 
 seemed reasonable enough, for it was a critical time 
 and the whole country was in a money famine. But he 
 did not yet realize Damen's power, nor the quality 
 of the people working with him. That combination was 
 going ahead, panic or no panic. They astonished even 
 the Chicagoans who were watching them, so it is not 
 entirely strange that they mystified the Provincial in 
 St. Louis. 
 
 What with his providing and placing every material 
 thing in the parish, from shingle nails to oil paintings, 
 one would suppose that Damen had his fill of occupa- 
 tion. Yet this was but a side issue with him. It was 
 merely the installing of the proper machinery, the open- 
 ing of roads to handle the crowding spiritual traffic 
 of the parish. During the building period this spiritual 
 traffic was never interrupted. On the contrary, it kept 
 constantly increasing and Damen always considered it 
 his main work. There were the week-day Masses, and 
 on Sunday an extra High Mass with Vespers in the 
 afternoon and Benediction; Confessions and Com- 
 munions in great numbers; sick calls, preparing the 
 dying, burying the dead; helping the poor, caring for 
 the schools, organizing sodalities, instructing converts, 
 journeying after lost sheep. There was preaching to 
 
'Building the Qhurch 91 
 
 6e done and Damen did most of it. Solemn festivals 
 were celebrated with all the pomp he could give them ; 
 there were novenas, May devotions, Lenten services, 
 triduums and retreats. Everything the Church could 
 give in the way of spiritual help was poured out to the 
 people with a generous hand. 
 
 In all this varied work Damen did his full share. It 
 is true that he had able assistants. Father Charles 
 Truyens was with him during the first three, the hard- 
 est years. Fathers Michael Corbett, Ignatius Maes and 
 John Bouchard were in the parish for part of this time, 
 so that after the first year Damen had at least two 
 assistants. But even with this the work was overwhelm- 
 ing. The parish outstripped the rest of Chicago in its 
 growth and three priests there were nantes in gurgite 
 vasto. It finally took ten priests to handle the suc- 
 cessive waves of newcomers who settled around the 
 church. 
 
 In this whirlwind Damen was everywhere. He had 
 a seemingly inexhaustible reserve strength that enabled 
 him to rise to every situation. Indeed he so identified 
 himself with the parish work that the people talked of 
 'Father Damen's church' and 'Father Damen's parish/ 
 Only very often they called him 'Father Diamond,' not 
 an unfitting sobriquet. 
 
 At intervals, when there was a lull in the storm and 
 he could get someone to replace him, he would take a 
 vacation. This consisted in going out from Chicago 
 to give a mission, lasting for a week or two. The mis- 
 sionary spirit was in him like an underground river 
 and it kept working its way to the surface. 
 
 In a letter to Father General, July, 1858, he gives an 
 account of his work during some of these absences 
 from home: 
 
 During the winter I have given missions and retreats 
 which have produced immense fruit. I have given the 
 Spiritual Exercises in Chicago in two churches* in which 
 
92 Arnold T)amen> SJ. 
 
 we had nine thousand Confessions ; in the city of Peoria, 
 with two thousand Confessions; in Galena, two thousand 
 and in Rockford, eight hundred Confessions. 
 
 In all these places religion had suffered very severely, 
 Catholics fallen away from the Church, of whom many 
 had become Protestants or infidels. All these have been 
 brought back and many Protestants converted. I have had 
 the consolation of baptizing several Protestants, among 
 them two ministers. The perseverance of these converted 
 sinners and Protestants has been most edifying, as I hear 
 from the letters of the Bishops and pastors testifying 
 to the effects of the missions. 
 
 About eighty non-Catholics were received into the 
 Church. The crowds attending the instructions were aston- 
 ishing and we were in the confessionals from early in the 
 morning until eleven or twelve o'clock at night. Our great 
 grief was that we could not hear the Confessions of all 
 the poor sinners who presented themselves, though several 
 nights we did not go to bed at all, but remained all night 
 in the confessionals. The secular clergy and the Domin- 
 icans assisted us in hearing the Confessions. I preached 
 three or four times every day. 
 
 In one of the missions I gave this winter, the church 
 was sold for debt while I was giving the Exercises. It 
 was worth twenty-five thousand dollars and was bought 
 by a Protestant for seventeen hundred. But Divine Provi- 
 dence sent him to listen to the Exercises. He was moved, 
 convinced, and before the end of the mission I had the 
 consolation of receiving him into the Church. And the 
 church which he had bought was restored to the pastor, 
 or rather the Bishop, of the diocese. This was in Galena, 
 Illinois. 
 
 The mission at X. was followed by very happy results. 
 The wealthy class of the city, who for many years had 
 not approached the Sacraments, assisted at the Exercises, 
 were touched by divine grace, brought back to God and 
 became examples of repentance and piety. I established 
 there a sodality of which the Bishop became spiritual di- 
 rector. It is composed of judges, lawyers, merchants, etc. 
 These gentlemen, who have been absent from the Sacra- 
 ments for ten, fifteen, twenty years, are now faithful in 
 
"Building the Church 93 
 
 communicating every month in a body and are seen sweep- 
 ing the church, to the wonder and edification of the whole 
 city. 
 
 In the same city, too, I was visited by Protestant preach- 
 ers and others who came to convert me from my errors. 
 I received them courteously, and conversed with them on 
 the doctrines of the Church. But they left me to the 
 mercy of God as an old papist who was beyond all hope 
 of conversion. In fact, I think they felt rather doubtful 
 about their own salvation after their conversation with 
 me. 
 
 After two years of organizing and building, he 
 writes to the Father General a resume of the work. 
 The letter is written in French. 
 
 Very Reverend and dear Father: 
 
 As I know that it is always gratifying to your Paternity 
 to hear from your sons, I have resolved to write to you. 
 
 The slate roof of the large church is now completed. 
 We have an outstanding debt of seventy-five thousand 
 francs. However, we possess enough, in fact more than 
 enough property, to pay for this. The property was given 
 for the church and I shall sell it when conditions will be 
 more favorable. I intended to sell half of it for thirty-five 
 thousand francs, but Reverend Father Provincial thought 
 that this would be too much of a sacrifice, as in a short 
 time this property will be worth a hundred thousand. 
 
 Since our coming to Chicago, hardly two years ago, I 
 have paid two hundred and sixty-five thousand francs. I 
 collected one hundred and ninety thousand of this among 
 the Catholics of Chicago. The remaining seventy-five thou- 
 sand (the debt I have just mentioned) I borrowed. Of 
 this I hope to be able to pay one-third during the summer. 
 
 Times are hard here ; money circulation is poor. How- 
 ever, I thank God that we are here in Chicago. This is 
 indeed where our Society should be. This city will be- 
 come one of the largest in the United States, and the 
 good we are doing here surpasses all that could be hoped. 
 Our frame church is always packed and many are turned 
 away for lack of accommodation. During the sermons 
 
94 ^Arnold Damen, SJ. 
 
 there is such a crowd that the people are wedged into the 
 church. Many remain outside. They cannot get in. They 
 hear Mass and the sermons through the windows which 
 we leave open. I have seen these dear people stand for 
 hours in the rain and snow. 
 
 Every Sunday evening we have a meeting of the Arch- 
 confraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the 
 conversion of sinners, and I give a sermon on the dogmas 
 of our holy religion. Many Protestants and infidels come. 
 Unfortunately some are dropping out. These belong to the 
 wealthier classes and they do not care to be crushed in 
 the crowd if they are lucky enough to get into the church. 
 
 Oh, my dear Father, you must understand how I regret 
 that I am not able to finish the large church which could 
 accommodate five or six thousand people. Oh, how many 
 could we not bring back to the true faith and how many 
 more to the practice of virtue and religion. Even as things 
 are, we spend a great deal of time in the confessional. 
 Sometimes we have to stay till midnight. On Holy 
 Saturday we heard Confessions until half past one in 
 the morning. 
 
 During the month of May we have devotions to the 
 Blessed Virgin twice a day and the church is too small 
 to accommodate all who come. In the morning, about eight 
 hundred, mostly women, come to the exercises. In the 
 evening just as many men come for the sermon. We hear 
 Confessions every day, not only during May, but through- 
 out the year. 
 
 We have received a number of Protestants into the 
 Church, among them two ministers. As for the Catholics 
 of Chicago and especially those of our parish, it is indeed 
 admirable, consoling, how they have advanced in virtue 
 and piety since our coming here. The Fathers who are 
 with me are quite astonished at it all. Often we say to 
 one another, 'Is not this wonderful ? Could we ever have 
 imagined that God would bless our labors as abundantly 
 as He has done ? How good these people are ! What rev- 
 erence, what obedience, what solid piety! Two years ago 
 there was drinking, profanity ; religious practices were not 
 in evidence, the Sacraments not frequently received. And 
 now these good people are so attached to the service of 
 
"Building the Church 95 
 
 God, receive the Sacraments so frequently, that without 
 God's special help, we should not be able to do the work/ 
 
 What has helped us greatly to this success is the great 
 facility for preaching that God has given me. He has so 
 favored me in this, that fifteen minutes are sufficient for 
 me to prepare to preach on any subject, whether moral, 
 dogmatic or controversial. 
 
 We have now about four hundred children in our day 
 school. These children are taught by paid instructors. In 
 our Sunday school we have between seven and eight hun- 
 dred children. This work is directed by Father Truyens. 
 Likewise we have established the Sodality of the Blessed 
 Virgin for the men, with one hundred and twenty mem- 
 bers now enrolled. Every Sunday they meet to recite the 
 Office and I give them a sermon. 
 
 During last winter I spent two months in the Novitiate 
 making my third year of probation. And here I will take 
 the liberty, dear Father, to tell you that I am not very 
 grateful to you for giving me so short a time for my 
 tertianship. I needed an entire year to shake off the dust 
 I have gathered since my first probation, nineteen years 
 ago. However, these two months did some good, maybe a 
 great deal of good. The thirty-day retreat was surely the 
 happiest time of my life, and I wondered how God could 
 give so many consolations and sweetnesses to one who 
 had been so unfaithful and had committed so many sins, 
 at least before his entrance into the Society. How many 
 times did I say, 'Lord, it is good to be here!' But 
 I knew that this was self-seeking and then I would reject 
 these thoughts. 
 
 As a result of my absence, I have not been able to 
 give many missions this winter. I gave one at the Mehan 
 settlement ; one at Peoria, one in our church at Milwaukee 
 and another at the Cathedral in the same city. During all 
 these missions, I preached three times a day and the exer- 
 cises were followed by the most consoling results. Every 
 one of the four churches was filled and they crowded 
 around the confessional from morning until midnight. You 
 can imagine the time we got to bed and we had to begin 
 over the next morning at five o'clock. We had great need 
 of confessors everywhere. Many sinners, after waiting 
 
96 ^Arnold Damerty SJ. 
 
 whole days, were obliged to forego the hope of Confession. 
 I was much grieved for these poor souls, faithful to the 
 grace inwardly moving them, their hearts filled with the 
 compunction poured into them by the Holy Ghost, yet not 
 allowed the happiness of actually making their confession. 
 The Fathers at Milwaukee felt about this as I did. 
 
 How many times did I desire to be employed solely as 
 a missionary, for, as the Bishop of Milwaukee told me, 
 I was born to be a missionary. When I have preached 
 two or three times a day for two months and have been 
 in the confessional from five in the morning until twelve 
 at night, I feel not at all tired and my voice is as strong 
 and as clear as ever, although I ordinarily preach an hour, 
 or an hour and a half, with great vigor. For the louder 
 the preacher, the more he is thought of by the Irish and 
 Americans. You cannot imagine, Very Reverend Father, 
 how much good is done by means of these missions, how 
 many poor sinners are brought back to God after neglect- 
 ing the Sacraments for years, how many sacrilegious Con- 
 fessions repaired, how many vices plucked out and virtues 
 planted. For these reasons, Very Reverend Father, I 
 would earnestly beg of you to have Father Provincial 
 select two or three Fathers for mission work alone. And 
 how happy I should be if I were selected. Yes, I would 
 heartily thank God if this should happen, although I am 
 not asking for it. ... I am, 
 
 Very respectfully and affectionately, Very Reverend 
 and very dear Father General, 
 
 Your most obedient son in our Lord, 
 
 A. Damen, S.J. 
 
 P.S. As you may notice, Very Reverend Father, I 
 have had this letter recopied, as my writing is so bad 
 that you should never have been able to read it. 
 
 The real Damen appears very clearly here in the 
 general outlines of his character, as indeed, in writing 
 to his spiritual superior, he intended that it should : his 
 business ability, his power of organizing, his gifts as a 
 preacher, his fearlessness of hard work and his strength 
 to endure it. He gives us a distinct sense that he revels 
 
'Building the Qhurch 97 
 
 in work, and that, much as he has done, he has by no 
 means yet reached the limit of his reserves. We see, top, 
 his single aim in all that he does — to help others to 
 save their souls, while not neglecting his own soul. Un- 
 derneath it all, with a simple directness, he shows 
 whither the main current of his desires is running — 
 toward the mission field. He spoke truth when he said 
 he was born to be a missionary. He says he is not ask- 
 ing for it, by which he means that he will not seek to 
 force the General's hand. But it is plain where his 
 heart is. In the event that he had never been sent to 
 the missions, he would certainly have spent himself 
 faithfully in whatever narrower circle he was placed. 
 But it is equally certain that he would have felt himself 
 tethered there. 
 
 He was contented in the Holy Family parish and he 
 loved all its people. But one of the reasons why he was 
 content, was that in the spirit of its growth it was to 
 him very much like a continuous mission. The crowds 
 flocking to hear him preach, the fervor of their lives, 
 the large numbers of Confessions and Communions, 
 the prodigals coming back to the fold, the steady flow 
 of converts, all this was the breath of his nostrils, the 
 delight of his missionary's soul. Nevertheless, even this 
 was not enough. Other sheep there were of his Father's 
 fold and he was straitened until they should be deliv- 
 ered. Hence his journeys, whenever he could spare the 
 time, beyond the big parish. He was reaching out to 
 other souls who, he felt, were calling him. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 AT WORK IN THE PARISH 
 
 WHILE the Gothic church was working its way 
 upward, the prairie for miles about was filling 
 up with homes. A bird's-eye view of the ensemble 
 would hardly call it a vision of gorgeous palaces. Early 
 settlers, as a rule, have not begun with palaces. Neither 
 could we say, in the poetic sense, that the parish 'rose 
 like an exhalation.' Exhalations were common enough, 
 but they came up from the wet and often water-filled 
 prairies. If one could perch where the top of the church 
 tower later came to be, all one would see would be acres 
 upon acres of little wooden houses, sometimes bunched 
 together like bees in a swarm, sometimes reaching out 
 tentacles across the open spaces, spreading and thicken- 
 ing as they went. One-story cottages, very many of 
 them ; a lesser number with two stories. The few build- 
 ings taller than this were stores. Lumber was cheap 
 and plentiful and the first idea was to get under cover. 
 How the cover looked was relatively unimportant. 
 
 It was the first chance to own a home that they had 
 ever had. Ninety per cent of these settlers had come 
 from a land where for more than three hundred years 
 their ancestors had been forced into the tradition of 
 never owning anything. Dispossessed by violence of 
 their native land, they had come at last into harbor 
 and, like mariners climbing ashore after a wreck, all 
 they were able to do then was to build them a shelter. 
 Here, at last, were a few feet of land they could openly 
 call their own without fear of eviction. Yet these were 
 the people that set to work at once and, forgetting their 
 
 98 
 
<tAt Work in the Tarish 99 
 
 personal needs, built a huge Gothic church, six schools 
 and filled the first Catholic college in the city of Chi- 
 cago. The ancestral inheritance of the land of saints 
 and scholars' told in their lives the moment they were 
 free. No wonder Father Damen loved them ! 
 
 They had their faults, of course, and sometimes 
 serious faults. But the way they received the Sacra- 
 ments proved that they had sense enough at least to 
 acknowledge these and to try to correct them. The 
 marvel is that after three centuries of persecution, they 
 had not been completely disorganized spiritually. 
 
 Whatever the architectural limitations of their pres- 
 ent position, therefore, nothing interfered with their 
 energy. They turned their hands to anything that could 
 earn them a living. Most of them had to take up ordi- 
 nary laboring by the day, in railroad yards, or along 
 the river and the lake, loading and unloading trains and 
 boats. Many found their way into trades and became 
 mechanics, blacksmiths, teamsters, bricklayers, carpen- 
 ters, sailors. Others opened stores for clothing, boots 
 and shoes, groceries and meats. One of the businesses 
 that gave Father Damen and the priests of the parish 
 a great deal of trouble was the saloon. In certain sec- 
 tions many owners of these saloons sold liquor reck- 
 lessly, spreading the drink habit and impoverishing 
 families. The pastors made a strong drive on this abuse, 
 checked it and finally reduced it to a minimum. Some 
 of Damen's most powerful sermons were delivered 
 against this evil. He organized a total abstinence society 
 that for more than twenty-five years was a strong bul- 
 wark against drunkenness. By that time the evil had 
 practically disappeared. 
 
 The rank and file of the parish, however, were peo- 
 ple of upright, steady lives, clean, industrious, generous 
 to a degree. Naturally, in the beginning, there was pov- 
 erty, in many cases such as to need relief. Father 
 Damen discovered this at once. On January 14, 1858, 
 
100 ^Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 but a few months after the completion of the wooden 
 church, the following announcement was read from the 
 altar : 
 
 In order to relieve the poor of the parish we have 
 adopted the following plan : Two or three gentlemen will 
 call on the parishioners for contributions for the poor. 
 The provisions will be kept in the pastoral residence. Two 
 ladies will visit the poor in order to prevent imposition. 
 These ladies will give an order to supply the wants of 
 the indigent. For this week the lady visitors will be Mrs. 
 Martin and Mrs. Hickey. The collectors this week will 
 be Mr. Martin, Mr. O'Neill and Mr. William Creed. 
 
 This aid to the poor was systematically continued for 
 two years, when the St. Vincent de Paul Society was 
 invited to organize a branch made up of parish mem- 
 bers. In June, i860, the Holy Family Conference 
 was formally aggregated to this Society, with Father 
 Truyens as their first spiritual director, and their first 
 report, a year later, tells us that thirteen hundred dol- 
 lars was expended in that time for the poor. With 
 what fidelity their work has since been carried on we 
 can gather from their report of activities from 1859 
 to 1922, which totals more than eighty-one thousand 
 visits made and ninety-five thousand dollars expended. 
 
 Apart from those who needed immediate relief, there 
 was not much cause for the reproach of luxury among 
 the rest of the district. For several years Chicago re- 
 mained a vast mud flat with no paved streets, no street 
 cars, sidewalks up and down like the teeth of a saw. 
 In wet weather every step outside of the house to 
 church, to school, to work, was taken ankle deep in 
 ooze; the water supply, so plentiful underfoot, was half 
 a mile away when it came to getting a drink of it ; rain 
 water had to be carefully gathered into cisterns. These 
 elementary discomforts indicate sufficiently the primi- 
 tive lives of these pioneers. Nearly every home derived 
 its milk supply from the family cow and much of its 
 
Jit Work in the Tarish 101 
 
 meat from the family geese, ducks, turkeys and 
 chickens. A herdsman with his dog came along the 
 street every morning, assembled his quota of cows and 
 drove them out to the wide prairies where they con- 
 tentedly munched the wild grass all day and returned 
 at night, lowing down the street, ready for milking, 
 the herd gradually vanishing away in its progress as 
 each trained cow gracefully stepped aside into its proper 
 gateway when its house was reached. This service of 
 the herdsman cost twenty-five cents per week per cow. 
 As regards upkeep and location, the poultry was more 
 easily taken care of. The long and beautiful ditches 
 flanking the streets were as Venetian canals whereon, 
 in stately fashion, squadrons of ducks and geese sedately 
 oared themselves adown the flood. The various back 
 yards of the homes accommodated the turkeys and 
 chickens and at intervals the ensemble united in an 
 inspired and frenzied tutti of gabbling, quacking, gob- 
 bling, cackling and crowing that would make the mod- 
 ern jazz orchestra turn pale with envy. This was west 
 side Chicago in the 'sixties. And right from the middle 
 of this spread of mud, water and wooden houses 
 soared the walls and tower of the Gothic church, silent 
 but eloquent witness to the lofty and aspiring spirit of 
 these pioneers. 
 
 Hardships have their compensations. Where all are 
 struggling with like difficulties and problems, a sense 
 of brotherhood easily thrives. So, in the people gathered 
 together around Father Damen, there grew a lasting 
 comradeship. They worked together, prayed together, 
 came to know one another with the intimacy of a 
 family group. The name Holy Family given to their 
 parish was not altogether a misnomer. The virtues of 
 the little house of Nazareth were carefully imitated in 
 many a home on this prairie and between families a 
 spirit of mutual friendliness and help prevailed. It is 
 interesting today to listen to a meeting of any of the 
 
102 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 very old-timers who have not seen each other for some 
 years — the quick inquiries they make for ancients of 
 the parish they have lost track of, the litany of names 
 they can call up as easily as counting, the fresh memo- 
 ries they retain of little traits of character, little ways 
 their old friends had, and of the exact spot in which 
 they lived, the prayers they repeat aloud for the souls of 
 those who are gone, all of it telling more vividly than 
 words that friendships were branded deep into the heart 
 during those early days. 
 
 Over all this territory Damen ranged with the 
 familiarity and the affection of a father. He knew 
 every foot of the ground ; he could call by name every- 
 one in the parish. He was at home with them all, and 
 he knew how to take them, singly or together. The 
 result was that they met without any of the indirect 
 finesse that degenerates so often into insincerity. They 
 never approached each other through the fog of what 
 is called diplomatic relations. 
 
 A curious coalition this, of a Dutchman directing an 
 Irish parish. Of course similar combinations have hap- 
 pened before, but as a rule the outcome is at best 
 merely a succes d'estime. National temperament is a 
 tricky thing to handle, but Damen and his flock passed 
 the test perfectly. On first thought, nothing would 
 appear to be more opposite than the two temperaments 
 — the traditional Hollander, stolid, conservative, slow, 
 unimaginative; the Irishman, aggressive, nimble- 
 witted, quick and humorous. Yet, a further reflection 
 would perhaps reveal more in common between them 
 than a surface view would suggest. Beneath the staid 
 outer shell of the Dutchman we saw slumbered ro- 
 mance, waiting only the apt touch to waken it to life. 
 And under the vivacious exterior of the Irishman lurks 
 a tenacity that, once in action, makes him the world's 
 best soldier. With Damen and his people both these 
 came to pass. Damen's appeal for Catholic action 
 
Jit Work in the Tarish 103 
 
 roused the fighting spirit of the Irish, and their imme- 
 diate and whole-hearted response touched into flame 
 his spirit of romance. The grace of God welded these 
 two things together and henceforth they were one 
 force. An ideal combination wherein each gave to and 
 took from the other. 
 
 With all the speed and concentration of the work, 
 and the accompanying problem of making ends meet 
 financially, there was never any visible strain, none of 
 the peevishness or criticism that sometimes mars other- 
 wise generous work. A sunny cheerfulness pervaded 
 the parish; the helping hand was everywhere in evi- 
 dence. If sacrifices had to be made, they were made, 
 and no brooding about it. They cast their bread upon 
 the waters and trusted the Lord for its return. 
 
 On his side, Damen was the soul of good nature. 
 He moved about the parish, always serene, affable, in- 
 spiring confidence wherever he went. Even when he 
 was shuddering interiorly over his debts, apparently 
 caught in a blind alley, begging the Provincial and 
 the General for help, he never let the least hint of his 
 trouble escape to the parish. His strong, robust figure, 
 growing somewhat portly with the years ; his clear and 
 humorous eyes ; his smile, at once naive and wise ; his 
 manner, dignified and yet inviting ; his voice, that could 
 be so terrifying in the pulpit, warm and gracious in 
 conversation, with an undercurrent of easy fun in it 
 that came often spontaneously to the surface; a natural, 
 unassuming, but virile poise in all he said and did, 
 these won him welcome in every corner of the parish, 
 made him a member of the family, and established 
 him in the intimacy and unshaken trust of every soul 
 under his care. There were no scenic distances between 
 Damen and his people. 
 
 This could be noted by any observer every day in 
 the week, for while the parish was in its first years of 
 growing, Damen was always about it. Often after a 
 
104 Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 hard day's work going from house to house begging 
 for the church, he would find himself at supper time 
 far away from home. He kept going until he found 
 some family just getting ready to serve the meal, when 
 he said to the housewife : 
 
 'Mrs. Brady, don't forget me, but put on an extra 
 plate for me. I'm too far away from the house now to 
 be in time for supper, and the Brother will be bothered 
 if I come in late. He won't have to get an extra supper 
 and I can go ahead with my calls.' 
 
 This sudden intrusion upon the family supper of the 
 most distinguished person in the district might fluster 
 our modern hostess, but Mrs. Brady took it with all 
 the calm poise of her guest. 
 
 'Indeed, we're proud to have you with us, Father 
 Diamond. Mary, set a plate for Father.' And the whole 
 family, father, mother and the children sat around the 
 table, with Father Damen in the midst, chatting com- 
 fortably. It was a proud evening for Mrs. Brady, and 
 the neighbors were sure to hear about it. 
 
 On another occasion he found himself at about din- 
 ner time in the vicinity of O'Neill's Woods, a large 
 grove of trees along the river just west of Halsted 
 Street, now the habitat of packing houses, lumber 
 yards and railroads. Thomas O'Neill was a close 
 friend, and Father Damen never missed him when 
 passing that way. Today, however, he had a special 
 reason for calling. He was very low in funds. Mrs. 
 O'Neill welcomed him and invited him to dinner with 
 the family. 
 
 Thank you, Mrs. O'Neill, but I'll have to be at 
 home for dinner today. But I'm in great trouble today 
 and what would be better now than a dinner to me 
 would be a helping from the sugar bowl.' And he 
 pointed to an old-fashioned china bowl above the fire- 
 place. Without any hesitation, Mrs. O'Neill took down 
 the bowl, handed it to him, and told him to help him- 
 
Jit Work in the "Parish 105 
 
 self. Father Damen took out some of the sugar, tell- 
 ing her how much he took. 'Now, Mrs. O'Neill,' he 
 said, 'this refreshes me more than any dinner could 
 today. It will carry me over a dangerous bridge/ The 
 sugar bowl contained the family loose supply of cash. 
 
 One evening he was going through a neighborhood 
 where saloons were plentiful, and he happened upon 
 one of his well-to-do parishioners. A glance told 
 Damen that the man wasn't doing so well on this par- 
 ticular evening. He was evidently making the grand 
 tour of all the saloons in the district, and he had ar- 
 rived at the stage of interior illumination where he was 
 in love with all the world and his money belonged to 
 anybody who would take it. He hailed Father Damen 
 as a long-lost friend, the best friend he ever had. No- 
 body would ever part them. 
 
 'What are you doing over here, John ?' asked Father 
 Damen. 'Looking for the church?' 
 
 This abrupt question jolted John's brain into a sus- 
 picion that perhaps all was not well in this best of 
 possible worlds. He gazed at Father Damen with a 
 puzzled gravity. 
 
 'Well, you should be in the church, John, making 
 the Stations of the Cross,' continued Father Damen. 
 'But you're over here making the whiskey stations.' 
 
 'Father, you're right. That's what I'm doing,' said 
 John, with a solemn pathos. 
 
 'I should think that if you have money to throw 
 away, John, you wouldn't go around supporting 
 saloons with it, making them rich and helping them to 
 make other men drunkards. Look at your poor church 
 over there trying to get itself built. Why don't you 
 throw some money into that and help other men to be 
 good.' 
 
 John plunged his hand into his pocket and took out 
 a roll of bills, every dollar he had. 
 
106 ^Arnold Teamen, 5.7. 
 
 'Here, take it all, Father/ said he. 'It's for a grand 
 cause.' 
 
 Damen hesitated, for it was a considerable amount 
 of money and John didn't know how much it was. But 
 realizing that it was either he or the saloon keepers who 
 would get it, he took it. 
 
 'Come and see me tomorrow, John,' he said. 'And 
 now that you have no more to spend on drink, go home 
 and sober up.' 
 
 John did as he was told and the next day came 
 around very shamefacedly to see Father Damen. 
 
 'Here is your money, John,' said Damen. 'But I 
 ought to have a commission for saving it for you.' 
 
 'No,' said John. 'Keep it all, Father. What you gave 
 me was worth it. I won't take any of it. But I will take 
 the pledge, if you will give it to me.' 
 
 John took the pledge and that was the last of his 
 drinking. He became one of the most faithful workers 
 of the Holy Family Temperance Society. 
 
 The auctioning off of Damen's horse and buggy was 
 a signal that the parish stocking was completely empty 
 and the next thing they might expect was to see him 
 going around barefooted. This might be regarded as a 
 trick of good showmanship, and no doubt it was 
 touched with a flavor of old-time melodrama. But the 
 truth is, and Damen's letters clearly reveal it, on these 
 occasions he was pushed to the limit to make his pay- 
 ments, and did not know where to turn for help. The 
 debt that stalked him was an honest ghost; no make- 
 believe about it. 
 
 On the day announced for the auction a large crowd 
 assembled at the designated spot, in the open, and the 
 bidding began. One of the cleverest auctioneers in the 
 city was secured. 'No charge whatever for my services,' 
 he said. 'Only too glad to contribute a small share to 
 Father Damen's church.' There were many of these 
 auctioneers in Chicago then, as street-corner selling was 
 
*At Work in the Tarish 107 
 
 common, and the argot of the expert ballyhoo artist 
 was a delight to the crowds that invariably surrounded 
 him. Likely enough, too, it was here that Damen got 
 his first idea of capitalizing on his transportation. The 
 auctioneer unleashed his chameleon vocabulary ; humor, 
 pathos, a sweep into the sublime, and the crowd was 
 hypnotized. Up goes the bidding. Cheers from the non- 
 bidders as the formidable bid is made. 'Going — 
 going — gone! My dear sir, I congratulate you. Father 
 Damen's horse and buggy are yours.' Louder cheers, 
 followed by an aftermath of sighs that poor Father 
 Damen will have to foot it on the mudpaths once 
 more. 
 
 So he does. For some weeks he cheerfully tramps 
 and trudges over the swampy alluvium of Chicago's 
 west side, into the houses and stores, and departing 
 leaves behind him, invariably, footprints racy of the 
 soil. At last a few of the business men agree that this 
 shall not go on. It is perhaps interesting to observe a 
 distinguished looking gentleman in a frock coat and 
 top hat picking his way around boggy places, skidding 
 in the sludge and balancing himself across boards over 
 wide water-filled ditches. But this, continued day after 
 day in all weathers, pushes the humor of the thing past 
 even the Pickwickian stage. And when they remember 
 it is their pastor performing thus, they must stop it at 
 once. It will shame the parish. Father Damen must be 
 taken out of the mud. A subscription is started. It goes 
 over with a bound. Another horse and buggy appear, 
 Father Damen driving, and appearing as the parish 
 believed their pastor should appear. 
 
 There were times, however, when all visible help 
 failed him. The continuous blight of the panic withered 
 every prospect and he was almost tempted to give over 
 the work and wait for better times. 'One day,' Damen 
 tells this story himself, T was obliged to meet a heavy 
 payment or to foreclose. I had no money and I could see 
 
108 ^Arnold T)amen, S.J. 
 
 no way to procure it. I went into the church and up to 
 the tabernacle and I knocked at the little door. "Dear 
 Lord," I said, "You are here. I need money to pay 
 this debt. Give me the necessary amount." In time to 
 meet the payment the exact sum was sent to me.' 
 
 It might be supposed that this constant round of 
 begging tours among people who were themselves ris- 
 ing up from poverty, and especially during these years 
 of panic, would prove most embarrassing to anyone 
 who had to go through with it. No doubt Father 
 Damen would have preferred an easier way of meeting 
 his difficulties. His letters show that he was alert for 
 any short-cut he could make, and most ingenious in the 
 ways of saving, and of reducing debts. But after all 
 this, he had to face begging as the only solution. Dis- 
 tasteful as the work in itself certainly was, Damen 
 never showed himself oppressed or annoyed by it. He 
 created a friendly atmosphere around him by acting 
 always as though he had come among friends. Those 
 who were unable to assist him were never made to feel 
 that they were in any way less close to him. He brought 
 cheerfulness with him and left it after him. When he 
 could not get a contribution, he told them prayers 
 would be still better, and asked for prayers. He had as 
 many praying for the church as going to it. 
 
 His mingled air of dignity, sweetness and repose 
 gave him a charm of manner that nobody could resist. 
 There was no standing on ceremony with him, none of 
 the formality of the pompous man who inflicts him- 
 self on the bourgeoisie as a 'personage/ 
 
 'Where is Tom?' he asks, walking into a store and 
 inquiring of Mrs. Tom for her husband. 
 
 'Father, he is out in the barn,' says Mrs. Tom. 'I'll 
 go and call him in.' 
 
 'No, no/ says Father Damen. 'I'll go out and find 
 him.' 
 
 This knockabout life seemed to make no impression 
 
Jit Work in the Tarish 109 
 
 on his physical powers. For a large man, he was very- 
 brisk of movement, but unhurried. Though just about 
 medium height, he somehow gave the impression that 
 he was much taller. He wearied under no strain. At the 
 end of a day's hard work, indoors and out, his energy 
 still bubbled up like fresh water from a spring. Mr. 
 Joseph A. Connell, of Chicago, writes an impression 
 of Father Damen at a later period which is still a good 
 portrait of him in earlier years. 
 
 I served Mass for him [Mr. Connell says] at St. 
 Joseph's Home on May Street many times. As my recol- 
 lection runs, it was in the winter of 1882-83. The Mass 
 began, as I recall, at six, or possibly 5 145. I know it was 
 an unconscionably early hour. Mike Lambert and I were 
 appointed to serve, and it so happened that without any 
 prearrangement we alternated at the serving. Evidently 
 the effort of getting up so early was too much for us as 
 a regular thing, and we instinctively found this way out 
 of the difficulty. 
 
 I remember Father Damen, of course, in the pulpit. 
 He certainly could make himself heard. One occasion par- 
 ticularly comes to memory. A collection had been taken 
 up for some special purpose — I forget what — but any- 
 way Father Damen came out after Communion and went 
 into the pulpit. The substance of his remarks was to the 
 effect that 'they were a good people, a holy people, but 
 they were not a charitable people/ He said they had ex- 
 pected the collection would be about so much and it was 
 less than half of what they expected. 
 
 I was told some time ago that when he was giving a 
 mission in Galesburg, 111., he found out that the people 
 had bought a lot in the outskirts of the city and were go- 
 ing to build a church there. But he persuaded them to sell 
 that lot and to buy the property where the present church 
 stands. 
 
 I remember, too, my father and mother telling me many 
 times that when the Holy Family church was built there 
 was hardly a house between where they lived at Jefferson 
 and Forquer Streets, and the church. 
 
no ^Arnold T)amen> S.J. 
 
 Damen was a tremendously impressive man, full of en- 
 ergy and force. He seemed in a way to typify energy and 
 force. 
 
 There was something almost gigantic about him. And 
 this was not due to his size, although he was a big man. 
 Rather it was due to the feeling he inspired that he was 
 a very torrent of energy, which he could not control, but 
 which, in a way, swept him on. And with it all he was 
 kindness itself. You could feel his goodness and kindness 
 as he passed by. 
 
 I did not intend to write all this when I started — but 
 he was a great man, a giant of a man. 
 
 The ordinary man seemed more or less of a pygmy 
 alongside of him. But over and above his energy and force 
 and greatness was his goodness. That was his supreme 
 quality. 
 
 He made one think of the clergyman in the Deserted 
 Village, except that he was no Cliff. He was a man on 
 whose head eternal sunshine visibly rested. 
 
 His life day after day called on all to follow him to 
 that world to which his constant example led the way. 
 
 We have said much about Damen's journeyings in 
 collecting money. But he was no mere tax-gatherer. He 
 was alive all the time to every possible need of his 
 people. In his goings about he found the poor, who 
 were too shy to ask for help; he came upon the sick 
 who were neglected and not reported to the pastor ; he 
 picked up strays from the church and brought them 
 back; among non-Catholics, where he was very well 
 known, he made many converts; he mended family dif- 
 ferences, some of them of long standing. Hardly a day 
 passed that he did not return carrying some lost sheep 
 on his shoulders. 
 
 He did not, either, give the mere remnants of his 
 time to any cases he came upon. He attended to them 
 immediately and kept caring for them until the trouble 
 was settled. He was much bolder in asking money for 
 the poor than for his church. 
 
*At Work in the Tarish III 
 
 Father Thomas Wallace, of St. Louis University, 
 who knew Father Damen well, sends us this reminis- 
 cence : 
 
 Here is one that Father Damen told me in Omaha. He 
 had come upon a poor family who needed help badly. It 
 Would take ten dollars — a considerable sum then — to carry 
 them across their immediate wants. One of his parish- 
 ioners, who had a farm near Canal Street (think of a farm 
 near Canal Street now) was a well-to-do, and a generous 
 man, ever ready to help out. But the good wife was quite 
 close and had something to say on the disbursement of the 
 family funds. Father Damen made his way to their home. 
 The husband was down in the field working. Father 
 Damen passed him on the way and went on to the house. 
 Mrs. X. met him at the door, socially hospitable but 
 financially on the defensive. 
 
 T need ten dollars, Mrs. X./ said Damen, 'for a poor 
 family out on the prairie. They are starving and sick and 
 we must help them/ 
 
 T am sorry to hear it/ said Mrs. X., 'but you know 
 how money is now. It's hard for all of us. There isn't a 
 penny in the house.' 
 
 'Yes,' said Damen, T know all about how hard it is 
 to get money. But, my good woman, if you will go up- 
 stairs now and take out the stocking you keep hid in the 
 left-hand corner of the bureau drawer, you will find 
 ten dollars there. Take it out and give it to me for that 
 poor family.' 
 
 Mrs. X. stood dazed, speechless, looking at Father 
 Damen as at a visitor from the other world. How, except 
 by supernatural means, could he ever have known about 
 that stocking? Oh, nothing could be hid from Father 
 Damen. She ran up the stairs, came down in a minute and 
 pushed the ten dollars into his hands. 
 
 I asked Father Damen how he knew where she kept 
 her savings. He laughed heartily and said he guessed it. 
 I did not have the nerve to inquire further into the mys- 
 tery. But I thought afterwards that the husband might 
 have let the cat out of the bag. But evidently the wife 
 
112 ^Arnold T)amen> S.J. 
 
 didn't think so, and all Father Damen would say was, 
 T guessed it.' 
 
 It was not often, however, that Damen had to use 
 strategy to obtain aid for the poor, and he was most 
 open-handed in giving everything he could to them. 
 That was one spot where he did not economize. But he 
 watched that the deserving poor, and not impostors, 
 were assisted. 
 
 One day a group of boys were playing near the 
 church, when Father Damen came out of the pastor's 
 residence and called one of them. 
 
 'Billy, run over to Taylor Street and see what kind 
 of a house is at this number/ giving Billy a number. 
 'And hurry back and tell me.' 
 
 Billy skipped off to Taylor Street and, after looking 
 around as well as he could, returned to Father Damen. 
 
 'There's no house at all at that number,' he reported. 
 
 'That's what I thought/ said Father Damen. And 
 a few moments later a man was seen leaving the resi- 
 dence, wearing an air of virtuous indignation. He was 
 a professional beggar, many of whom were then mak- 
 ing a healthy living in Chicago, filching from charity. 
 Damen was a little too much for them. 
 
 He kept his convert net spread as he went about and 
 drew many souls into the fold. In the 'fifties, much 
 more than today, a great fear of the Catholic priest 
 possessed the non-Catholic. The more ignorant among 
 non-Catholics still shuddered at the uncanny hoof-and- 
 horn traditions they drank in at the family fireside in 
 their youth. 
 
 I. do; nod pretend to say that this obsession has by 
 any means; disappeared from our so-called liberal civi- 
 lization. Only in Damen's time it lacked the veneer 
 which later bigots have employed to cover its naked 
 crjidity. Anti-Catholic prejudice in the American 'fif- 
 ties was much like the vulgar English prejudice New- 
 
*At Work in the Tarish 113 
 
 man describes in his Present Position of Catholics. 
 A convert to Catholicity then was taboo, an outcast 
 not only from all honest men but from all thinking 
 minds. For he was either immoral or insane, and prob- 
 ably both. We know how, in England, even educated 
 men seriously believed and spread the word that New- 
 man had lost his mind. American prejudice was very 
 similar to this. 
 
 Nevertheless Damen's converts during these years 
 were many. His personality, with its candid, natural, 
 affable approach, put him at one with non-Catholics 
 in a very short time. Suspicion quickly evaporated 
 under his sunny manner, confidence grew and finally 
 attachment. Damen had the rare gift of being contro- 
 versial without being bitter. One felt that back of his 
 directness there was always an affectionate smile. 
 
 Mother Herbert, of the Religious of the Sacred 
 Heart, tells us an incident characteristic of Damen's 
 methods : 
 
 When we were living on Morgan street [she writes] 
 there was a neighbor close by, a Protestant grandma with 
 whom my mother was very friendly. Father Damen, when 
 passing our place, used to drop in, and there he met 
 Mrs. X. She was stanch in her creed but, unlike most of 
 the Protestants of that day, liberal minded toward those 
 of all other religions. Father Damen enjoyed chats with 
 her. Indeed, quite heated controversies they often grew 
 into. I used to sit on the top steps listening while they 
 held forth on the front porch. 
 
 Invariably the good-by was this : 
 
 'Ah, then, Mrs. X., mark my words, you'll be one of 
 my sheep yet. I'll have you in the Master's true fold one 
 day.' 
 
 And her answer was, 'May the Lord's blessing descend 
 on you, Father Damen, but that will never be. We'll meet 
 above in heaven, though your road will be quite a different 
 one from mine/ 
 
 But Father Damen would have the last word: 'Yes, 
 
114 Arnold r Damen y SJ. 
 
 we'll meet up above, but we'll come in by the same path. 
 You'll be my sheep yet/ 
 
 At the age of seventy -nine he baptized her and I led 
 her to her First Communion. She died at the age of eighty- 
 two. On her baptismal day she greeted Father Damen 
 with the words : 
 
 'Well, and so it has come to pass. I'm your sheep, after 
 all.' 
 
 'And a good sheep you are, Mrs. X.,' said Father 
 Damen. 
 
 Damen's sense of humor was by no means sub- 
 merged in the sea of his pastoral and building occu- 
 pations. He was not one of those artificially intense 
 persons who get on people's nerves by insisting on 
 living in a constant atmosphere of strain and calling 
 it efficiency. He knew that relaxation is a part of all 
 good work, and if any innocent fun cropped out along 
 the trail, he did not miss it. 
 
 On a very hot midsummer's day in 1859, Mr. Kelly, 
 the shoemaker, sat in his shop on Twelfth Street, ham- 
 mering away at old shoes. Just across the street was 
 more hammering, for there the big church was going 
 up. Wrapped in his leather apron and sweltering in 
 his stuffy shop, the only relief he got was when an old 
 crony of his would come into the place and bid him the 
 time of day. For Mr. Kelly was popular among the 
 neighbors. 
 
 This hot day one of them was in for a chat and the 
 talk naturally turned on the weather. And after they 
 had agreed for the third or fourth time that 'it was a 
 terrible hot day — terrible !' they became conscious of an 
 equally terrible thirst. But a few hundred feet away 
 stood the corner saloon (this, all this, was in the olden 
 time, long ago) and the thought of the cool beer nest- 
 ling in the barrels there soon became maddening. 
 Shortly after, a figure might be seen, bearing a shining 
 bucket, moving cornerward with a jaunty air. In a 
 
Jtt Work in the Tarish 115 
 
 moment the same figure reappeared and glided with 
 rather more speed, but with a ritualistic carefulness, 
 back toward Kelly's shop, bearing the same shining 
 bucket, now topped with a delicate froth. Be it under- 
 stood, by way of parenthesis, that in those simple and 
 primeval days, the carrying of a harmless, and per- 
 haps necessary, pail of beer along the streets did not 
 send a weird, shooting pain through the aesthetic sense 
 of the passer-by, nor did it arouse any of the stand- 
 ardized emotions of horror and indignation among 
 the 'holier-than-thou' s,' let alone bringing out the 
 machine guns. It was considered, in the language of 
 that misguided period, 'perfectly all right.' And so Mr. 
 Kelly's envoy passed on unmolested and if observed, 
 observed with envy. 
 
 Meantime, Father Damen was in and out of the 
 church opposite, watching the men at work. And as he 
 stood deep in the dust of Twelfth Street, looking up 
 at the building, out of the corner of his eye he caught 
 the pilgrimage movement between the shop and the 
 saloon. The thermometer was around one hundred. The 
 dust was stifling. Father Damen felt thirsty himself. 
 
 So he waited until he saw the messenger enter 
 Kelly's shop and close the door, when he stepped across 
 the street and after a few moments entered. The two 
 old lads hurriedly hid the foaming pail. There were no 
 drinking glasses in the shop, and Mr. Kelly could never 
 invite his pastor to drink out of the pail. Besides, there 
 didn't seem to be enough for three. But Father Damen 
 had apparently come for a long visit. He sat down 
 comfortably and started a conversation that bade fair 
 to take in the history of the world. After blankly lis- 
 tening for what seemed an interminable time, Kelly's 
 old crony gave up in despair and left. As soon as he 
 was outside, Father said to Kelly: 
 
 'Now, Tim, bring forth the royal bumper and we'll 
 
Ii6 ^Arnold 'Damen, SJ. 
 
 have a quiet drink together. It's a very hot day and 
 I'm perishing with thirst.' 
 
 Tim's theatrical look of ignorance and surprise was 
 utterly lost on Father Damen, so he awkwardly fum- 
 bled under his work-bench and brought out the beer. 
 Father Damen took a good drink from the bucket, 
 thanked Mr. Kelly and went out to continue his work 
 on the hot street. 
 
 Father Damen was a strong advocate of temper- 
 ance, and against the indiscriminate selling of liquor. 
 Some of his most powerful sermons were delivered 
 upon this evil and in his everyday life about the parish 
 he exercised steady pressure on the owners of dram- 
 shops especially, until many of these closed their busi- 
 ness and most of the others came over to his idea of 
 temperance. His way of handling each one singly had 
 much to do with his success. However forcible he might 
 be in the pulpit, he was careful never to be bitter with 
 the individual. One day a man came to him and said : 
 
 'Father, I'm in the liquor business and I have a 
 scruple about it.' 
 
 'What is your scruple?' asked Father Damen. 
 
 'Well, it's like this. The whiskey I sell is pretty 
 strong, so I try to help the men who drink it to walk 
 straight on their way home/ 
 
 'You mean you bring them home when they can't 
 walk?' 
 
 'Oh, no, Father, I never let them get that bad. But 
 I keep them from drinking too much whiskey, by weak- 
 ening it with water. And that's what I have the scruple 
 about. The whiskey is half water.' 
 
 'I see/ said Father Damen. 'I'll tell you what to do, 
 John. You tell me that you give them half water and 
 half whiskey. Well, take out the other half of the 
 whiskey and put water in place of that. Then they'll 
 be sure to walk straight when they go home/ 
 
 Among the non-Catholics of the parish Father 
 
*At Work in the Tarisk 117 
 
 Damen had many friends whom he included in his 
 visiting list. Many of them he brought into the church. 
 Others helped him to build it. On occasion, he asked 
 them for co-operation as readily as if they were of the 
 parish. The Knisely family, living near the church, 
 were very friendly with Father Damen. This was one 
 of the few families who owned a piano. On one of his 
 visits the piano caught Father Damen's eye. As usual 
 he had a large payment clamoring for liquidation and 
 was in his customary state of wonderment how he 
 might meet it. The piano solved the difficulty. With- 
 out any preliminaries he turned to his hostess and said : 
 
 'Mrs. Knisely, may we have the use of your piano 
 for a concert?' 
 
 Naturally, Mrs. Knisely was taken aback. To have 
 her precious piano taken from her home, carted along 
 rutted streets for some blocks, hoisted into a hall, to be 
 banged upon for hours by terrified amateurs, was not 
 precisely her idea of taking care of a valuable instru- 
 ment. Nevertheless, she listened, through her astonish- 
 ment, to Father Damen's explanation of how much he 
 needed, and when Damen finished she simply said : 
 
 'Yes, Father, you may have the piano.' 
 
 The concert cleared away the debt, and perhaps the 
 piano. But we are left with pleasant memories of a 
 courageous Mrs. Knisely. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 CURRENTS AND CROSS-CURRENTS 
 
 BY THIS time the big church began to bulk on 
 the horizon. From any point along the river bank 
 one could see it standing out on the prairie like a ship 
 at sea. Strangers coming to the city, and looking to 
 the west, inquired what was the huge building away 
 out there. On being told that it was Father Damen's 
 church, they asked if any Chicago people ever went 
 that far to church. The houses about were so small 
 and scattered that it appeared to be the only thing 
 on the prairie. Many wise heads were shaken over the 
 recklessness of the venture and many wise sayings 
 passed to the effect that it likely was another case of 
 much cry and no wool. 
 
 As Damen had forecast, however, it proved a big 
 magnet drawing to itself from all sides Catholics who 
 hungered for the services of the church. The whole 
 west side of Chicago today, with its more than a mil- 
 lion residents, owes the entire core of its growth and 
 a great proportion of its actual spread to this church 
 of the Holy Family. Ten years after Damen first 
 stepped on the prairie, this fact was generally recog- 
 nized in Chicago and commented on by the newspapers 
 of the day. Damen was now gaining momentum slowly, 
 but he was still compelled to create the ground under 
 his feet as he moved, as the following letter to his 
 Provincial indicates: 
 
 Chicago, May 24, 1859. 
 
 Very Reverend dear Father Provincial: 
 Your favor of the twenty-second instant surprised and 
 
 118 
 
Currents and C ross -^ urrents ll 9 
 
 grieved me. You say I am in your debt and I supposed 
 you were in my debt. You will surely remember that you 
 promised me that from the fifteenth of February, 1859, 
 you would charge me only six per cent on the $15,000 
 which the Province paid for the land in Chicago. And 
 Jane Graham's property, bringing $300, would leave me 
 to pay $50 a month. I think that you marked this in your 
 book, for you observed that in case of your death this 
 might cause trouble. You will also remember that I paid 
 you all the interest due, to the time I left St. Louis. 
 
 I hope that your Reverence has not changed your mind 
 and I do not think that you could conscientiously do so. 
 For this contract was your own free offer and accepted 
 by me; therefore binding in conscience till I break my 
 part of the contract. I am working day and night in order 
 to pay off the $5,000 which is due this summer, and you 
 know well enough that this is no trifle in these hard times. 
 And although I am anxious to finish the church this sum- 
 mer on account of the cheapness of materials and labor, 
 and in order to do more good, and would therefore be 
 willing to sacrifice the property, yet I cannot promise 
 more than what you agreed to of your own accord. 
 
 I am astonished that you should have overlooked this. 
 Your Reverence seems to forget all my troubles and 
 anxieties, and because I have been able to make the July 
 payment, you seem to think that I must have a great deal 
 of money. I am now working hard to pay the August pay- 
 ment of $2,300. Please give me an answer as to what you 
 can do. I have now said what I will be able to do this 
 year. 
 
 Your obliged son, 
 
 A. Damen. 
 
 But the long and complicated struggle was drawing 
 to its close. What looked in the beginning like plowing 
 the rock had become in the short space of three years, 
 the tilling of a rich and fertile field. Not one among 
 his people now but would hold his soul out to Damen 
 on the palm of his hand. His achievement in building 
 
120 ^Arnold Domett, S.J. 
 
 a church like a cathedral in the middle of a prairie and 
 evoking a congregation around it, as if by magic, gave 
 them a confidence in him that could not be shaken. 
 
 The finish of the first stage of Damen's work came 
 in i860. Father Garraghan, in his history, The Cath- 
 olic Church in Chicago, gives us a resume of the final 
 days leading to the dedication, from which we quote : 
 
 Work on the new church went steadily forward. Early 
 in i860 contracts were let to Patrick O'Connor for the 
 towers and front wall of the church and to Robert Carse 
 for the stained-glass windows, 'work to be equal to that 
 of the windows in St. James's church, North Side/ Prog- 
 ress in bringing the great structure to completion was now 
 so rapid as to permit of the solemn dedication in the mid- 
 summer of i860. The ceremony took place on Sunday, 
 August 26, Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a 
 day in the Church's calendar dear to the heart of Father 
 Damen, and was carried out with a degree of splendor 
 quite unprecedented in the history of the Middle West. 
 Thirteen members of the hierarchy were in attendance, 
 Bishop Duggan being the officiating prelate, Bishop Fitz- 
 patrick of Boston celebrant of the Pontifical Mass, and 
 Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis the preacher of the 
 dedication sermon, while in the progress of the ceremony 
 sermons were delivered in English by Bishop Carrell of 
 Covington, in German by Bishop Henni of Milwaukee 
 and in French by Bishop de St. Palais of Vincennes. Be- 
 sides the prelates named there were present in the sanc- 
 tuary Bishops Smyth of Dubuque, Juncker of Alton, 
 Grace of St. Paul, Whelan of Nashville, Lefevre of 
 Detroit, Luers of Fort Wayne and Timon of Buffalo. Mo- 
 zart's Twelfth Mass, rendered under the personal direc- 
 tion of Father Maurice Oakley, one of the priests serving 
 the parish, was the musical feature of the occasion. To 
 Father Damen perhaps no day in all his career was quite 
 like this in the splendid tokens of success with which it 
 crowned his labors of the preceding three years. 'The Rev- 
 erend Arnold Damen,' wrote in 1866 James W. Sheahan 
 
Currents and C ross -^'^ rrents I21 
 
 of the Chicago Times, is the Hercules who has in a few 
 years wrought all this work. To his energy, his ability, 
 his sanctity, his perseverance and his great practical intelli- 
 gence is due not only the erection of this magnificent 
 edifice but the great spiritual success which has crowned 
 the labors of the Society. , 
 
 It may be a surprise to the reader, as it was to the 
 writer when first he read this program, to see the large 
 number of Bishops assembled for this dedication, com- 
 ing from Boston, Nashville, St. Paul and points be- 
 tween. Even today such a gathering of Bishops is 
 unusual, but in i860 it was, as Father Garraghan says, 
 unprecedented in the West. And if we ask why it was 
 that thirteen Bishops traveled from their homes hun- 
 dreds of miles away, out to the prairies of west side 
 Chicago, the only answer we can give is, Father Damen. 
 These Bishops were all his personal friends. In those 
 intervals of time he had taken as vacations during 
 the three years of parish building, he had worked in the 
 dioceses of these Bishops, giving missions. And they 
 appreciated so well the good he had done, that when 
 the occasion offered they came to visit him and his 
 church, to bless its beginning and to encourage his 
 people. I do not know of another such instance in the 
 history of the Church in America. 
 
 In the little wooden church that he was now leav- 
 ing, Damen had been much hampered. He felt as if he 
 were stifling spiritually when he saw his three-year- 
 old congregation, already rounding into vigorous ado- 
 lescence, and no place to house it. Successive crowds 
 packing the place to bursting and, at that, many turned 
 away. It all made for confusion within the church, and 
 straggling disorder without. And Damen liked nothing 
 less than confusion and disorder. 
 
 Now at last he had room 'to do more good/ as he 
 often said. At once the change was felt. Everything 
 
122 ^Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 fell into stride. The real formation of the parish began. 
 Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin for men and boys, for 
 girls and women; the League of the Sacred Heart, the 
 Purgatorial Society and the Society of the Holy 
 Rosary, the Acolythical Society, all came into being 
 with the first years of the new church. The St. Vincent 
 de Paul Society, already functioning, took on new 
 vigor. The married men organized a band and the boys 
 another. The choir very rapidly crystallized into a bril- 
 liant body of singers. The whole social life of the 
 parish took visible, coherent shape, moving like one 
 great family around the church as its center, and 
 friendships were formed that, in spite of the later sep- 
 arations, have lasted through seventy years. 
 
 Father Damen was at the head of all these develop- 
 ments, encouraged, followed and directed them. It was 
 evident, however, that he could not carry it through 
 by himself. As the spiritual tide rose in the parish 
 and the great area that was prairie quickly began to 
 take on the appearance of a city, he called on his Pro- 
 vincial for help. Priests and Brothers were sent steadily 
 to the rescue, until within a few years it took a dozen 
 workers to meet the situation. As their Superior, 
 Father Damen proved himself wise and energetic. He 
 had the sufficiently rare gift of putting the right man 
 in the right place. And he had the further gift of let- 
 ting them alone when he saw they were doing well. 
 
 Father Andrew O'Neil, builder and organizer of 
 schools for more than thirty years in the parish, and 
 Brother Thomas O'Neil, his lieutenant and brother, 
 are examples of this. Their tireless efficiency in school 
 work won for them the admiration of the Catholic 
 hierarchy throughout the United States and Cardinal 
 Gibbons said of their schools that they were the 'banner 
 schools of America.' 
 
 Father Oakley had great talent as a musician, and 
 
Currents and Qross-Currents 123 
 
 we see him producing Mozart's Twelfth Mass as the 
 first Mass sung in the new church. 
 
 Brother Grennan was an expert tailor and a most 
 versatile man of energy, taste and the gift of organi- 
 zation. We find him placed as sacristan and head of 
 the Acolythical Society. To him the church owed the 
 splendid outfitting of the boys who served the altar 
 and the firm coherence that marked the group. He 
 could handle boys. Father Damen admired his work 
 so much that it was said that Brother Grennan could 
 get permission to procure anything within reason for 
 the sacristy, the altar or the altar boys. 
 
 So we could go on through the list. The main thing 
 he desired to have from those under his direction was 
 devoted work. His idea was that it was the business 
 of the Lord and that all the Jesuit Community, himself 
 included, should be faithful servants. One whose mem- 
 ory goes back to those days writes us : 'As superior he 
 worked hard and he expected lots of work from his 
 subordinates. Those who worked with him knew they 
 had to work hard, very hard. He demanded it in no 
 uncertain manner. Neither was he backward in calling 
 on his parishioners to do things — to exert themselves 
 for sodalities, schools, church. Anything like shirking, 
 slacking, idling, waste of time, was intolerable to him.' 
 
 Yet the same writer continues : 'He was always a 
 father to his people. Most fatherly. An infallible, mem- 
 ory for names and faces. Never forgot anyone whom 
 he had met.' 
 
 In his dealings with his Community he was ap- 
 proachable, affable, and in the best sense of the word, 
 democratic. His natural dignity never degenerated into 
 the affectation of pomp and circumstance with which 
 smaller minds attempt to camouflage their ineptness. 
 Sometimes in the early days he was criticized for a too 
 rigid economy, bordering on penuriousness. This criti- 
 cism may have had a basis in fact. As a Dutchman, he 
 
124 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 was proverbially thrifty, and if we recall the desperate 
 corners he found himself in while trying to save enough 
 money for his debts during the long panic, we can con- 
 ceive that Dutch thrift plus a panic could cause a 
 tightening of the purse strings. He had every experi- 
 mental reason to know the value of a dollar. 
 
 His direct and energetic manner, though generally 
 tempered by cordial friendliness, at intervals slipped 
 into bluntness. He was fully aware of this defect and 
 openly rebuked himself for it whenever it happened. 
 On one occasion he found it his duty to admonish one 
 of the house for a lapse of obedience. The person at 
 fault had previously been spoken to without effect by 
 the official who had charge of his work, and finally 
 the matter was laid before Damen. It promised for a 
 time to be serious, for Damen had to inform the 
 Provincial. In his letter he says : 
 
 I have now admonished him five or six times, but my 
 admonitions have done no more good than Father X/s. 
 After reflecting for a day or two, I spoke to him pretty 
 determinedly, perhaps harshly, as this is my cliaracter (the 
 italics are Damen's) ; and he answered me most positively 
 that he would not and seemed determined to carry it out. 
 
 The next day, he writes the Provincial again : 
 
 In my last letter I may have given you cause of trouble 
 and uneasiness about N. I therefore write again to say 
 that he is now very repentant for what he has done, and 
 will endeavor to mind the recommendations given him. 
 I am most happy to write this to your Reverence. 
 
 One of the rules of a Superior is that he give from 
 time to time a report to headquarters of the general 
 condition of the Community. A characteristic report 
 of Damen is the following: 
 
 Our Community is getting along well. All seem to be 
 very happy and this of course makes me happy, too. The 
 
Currents and Qross-CuYrents 11$ 
 
 rules, as far as human frailty permit, are observed and all 
 things are regulated by the bell. We have no trouble from 
 without. 
 
 And again, a few years later: 
 
 As for the Community of our Chicago residence, every- 
 thing goes well. Thanks to the mercy of God, there is a 
 good spirit. All the members are obedient, respectful, 
 filled with zeal and exact in the spiritual exercises. Charity 
 is well cultivated among the members. We are all well 
 united. All are not as well recollected in spirit as they 
 ought to be, but we are all frail and shall try to do 
 better in the future. 
 
 We are forced to conclude, from letters like these 
 and from all we otherwise know of Damen, that he 
 judged himself too severely in saying that his char- 
 acter was harsh. It is often energy and rapidity of 
 thought that produce the effect of bluntness. There 
 are characters who leap to a conclusion with a swift 
 intuition and announce it with a suddenness that leaves 
 slower minds gasping, and raises in them a mixed feel- 
 ing of bewilderment and irritation. They are thus 
 tempted to suspect they are being domineered over and 
 hustled along and they resent having their accustomed 
 f)ace so accelerated. Damen possessed in a high degree 
 this practical instinct of quickly sensing the path out 
 of a difficulty. This he would follow at once with an 
 abruptness and decision that appeared rashness to others 
 who did not see what Damen saw. Naturally, until 
 they were well out of the woods and in the open, those 
 who followed must sometimes have felt they were be- 
 ing somewhat dragged. Later, when they saw how un- 
 failingly correct his estimates turned out to be, and 
 how he could shoot apparently at random and yet con- 
 sistently hit the mark, they all swung to his side and 
 gave him full and implicit confidence. It is this trait 
 in him which very likely made him accuse himself of 
 
126 ^Arnold 7)amen, S.J. 
 
 harshness, for we hear nothing in after years of lack 
 of consideration for the feelings of those working 
 with him. 
 
 During the early period of his undertakings, the 
 fear that Damen was steering for the rocks of bank- 
 ruptcy spread so far that it eventually reached to the 
 General. With evident misgivings, he inquired into the 
 situation, and Damen wrote the following letter in 
 answer : 
 
 Chicago, June 27, 1865. 
 
 Very Reverend and deUr Father: 
 
 I would have written you a long time ago, but the 
 missions have so taken up my time that I could not find 
 the opportunity, especially for writing in French, as your 
 Reverence desires, a language I have almost forgotten. 
 
 Our Reverend Father Provincial has informed me that 
 your Paternity is somewhat disturbed on account of our 
 debts. Well, Reverend Father, I assure you that you have 
 no cause for alarm on that score. We have a debt of forty 
 thousand dollars, it is true, but we have also a property 
 worth at least two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
 and we have a revenue of eighteen thousand dollars a 
 year. We can save at least seven or eight thousand dollars 
 a year. I believe that the finances of the Chicago residence 
 are in better condition than those of any other house in 
 the Province. And the interest of this debt helps to keep 
 up the novitiate and scholasticate and the province would 
 not be able to place the money at better rates. So again 
 I assure you, Reverend Father, that our debts do not 
 embarrass us at all and that your Paternity has no reason 
 for disquiet on that score. Whoever informed you is not 
 conversant with affairs in Chicago. 
 
 Our parish school is doing wonders. Father Andrew 
 O'Neil is at the head with Brother Thomas O'Neil. We 
 have almost nine hundred boys, who assist daily at Mass, 
 three instructions a week by Father O'Neill, and Con- 
 fessions every month. The pupils advance well in their 
 studies, their conduct is very good and the school gives a 
 gt^at deal of satisfaction to the parents and the general 
 
Qurrents and Qross-Currents 127 
 
 public. They have a musical band much admired in the 
 city and praised highly by the papers. 
 
 The girls' school is under the direction of the Ladies 
 of the Sacred Heart and is doing excellent work. But the 
 building is miserable and very small. That is why they 
 have but five hundred girls. Another reason is that their 
 house is not sufficiently central in the parish. However, 
 the two schools do immense good. 
 
 Our congregation is very edifying. Our parishioners 
 practice their religion faithfully with such piety as to give 
 us great consolation. Every week we have converts from 
 Protestantism. Our congregation still grows in numbers 
 and even the new church is now too small, although the 
 good Father Visitor said at the time of his visitation that 
 it was too large. In the two years since, nearly two thou- 
 sand homes have been built in the parish. 
 
 All in all, Very Reverend Father, we owe a deep grati- 
 tude to Divine Providence for all it has done for the 
 residence in Chicago. We have been blessed in an extraordi- 
 nary manner in all our enterprises for the glory of the 
 good God and the welfare of souls. I am astonished and 
 my heart is filled with gratitude to the good God who has 
 employed the services of even such a poor sinner as my- 
 self to do all these things in so little time for the salvation 
 of the dear souls redeemed by the blood of His Son. And 
 if I had been more faithful to His grace I should have 
 done more. That thought fills me with regret and fear. 
 But our Heavenly Father is always merciful, and so I 
 hope for pardon and shall try to do better in the future. 
 
 Your Reverence is not unaware of the fact that all we 
 have in Chicago has been bought and built by the alms of 
 the faithful — a property which is worth two hundred and 
 fifty thousand dollars. Would you kindly answer the fol- 
 lowing question: Are those who have contributed to the 
 building of our houses, our church and schools, and who 
 maintain their upkeep, to have part in the prayers and in 
 the Masses we celebrate each month according to our 
 rules, even those who have given little, but according to 
 their means? Father Druyts, then Provincial, and Father 
 Fillier, Superior of the Mission of New York, have told 
 
128 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 me this and I have promised it to all who have given 
 us alms. 
 
 I commend myself to your prayers and I am in the 
 Sacred Heart of Jesus, 
 
 Your most obedient son, 
 
 A. Damen, SJ. 
 
 We thus find Damen in the rather humorous situa- 
 tion of being criticized contrariwise for parsimonious- 
 ness on the one side and for extravagance on the other 
 — not an uncommon experience for anyone who at- 
 tempts a great and original work. Both criticisms evi- 
 dently were based on the partial views of minds that, 
 as Damen mildly says, were 'not conversant with af- 
 fairs in Chicago.' The obvious inference to be drawn 
 from the two opposite criticisms is that the truth lies 
 in between them and that Damen was simply a man 
 who did what any normal man must do who acts wisely, 
 namely, tighten up in some circumstances and go full 
 speed in others. 
 
 The completion of the church brought on what 
 Father Damen had anticipated, a great inrush of new 
 settlers into the district, so that within a few years two 
 thousand families were added to the parish. Together 
 with these came a multitude of others for reasons of 
 business and employment. There was room for all on 
 the wide prairie which soon began to be dotted with 
 thickening clusters of homes. Among those who came 
 in large numbers were emigrants from Germany, very 
 many of whom were devout Catholics. By i860 these 
 were estimated at about six thousand, most of them but 
 recently arrived. As a consequence they were handi- 
 capped by their inability to speak English and, thus 
 isolated, they gathered into a separate group of their 
 own countrymen. They built their own church and es- 
 tablished a German parish. However, they suffered 
 from the friction that attends all beginnings. It is un- 
 necessary to go into the details of these difficulties, 
 
Currents and Qross-Cutrents 129 
 
 more than to state the fact that they finally became so 
 complicated that they reached an impasse and the 
 church was placed under interdict. 
 
 Many of these Catholics began to attend the Lu- 
 theran church. Busy as Damen was with church and 
 school work and with the missions he gave during lulls 
 in the work, he nevertheless could not look at this situa- 
 tion without turning to relieve it. His solution of the 
 difficulty was to have a priest who spoke German 
 brought in from outside the diocese, who would come 
 in as a stranger without any possible prejudices, reopen 
 the church and rescue the congregation. He had al- 
 ready presented the case to the Provincial before the 
 following letter of December 20, 1859. 
 
 Very Reverend and Dear Father Provincial: 
 
 This afternoon I returned from Indianapolis where 
 the mission has been blessed with most extraordinary 
 success. The pastor did not expect more than five hundred 
 Communions, as this was the largest number he ever had 
 in any previous mission. To his great consolation he had 
 at this more than one thousand Communions. About eighty 
 persons from twenty to forty years of age made their 
 First Communion. Many others who had not been to 
 church for years, nor been inside the church before the 
 mission, made their peace with God. Seven Protestants 
 were received into the Church and more will follow the 
 example of these. We gave the scapular to three hundred 
 and fifty persons and more were anxious to receive it, 
 but we had no more. I established a Sodality for men. 
 Sixty-seven men were received and made the solemn act 
 of consecration in the sanctuary before the congregation. 
 Some of these men are the leading men of the city. Some 
 have been with the Odd Fellows, Sons of Malta, and 
 so on. 
 
 Tomorrow I will see the Bishop, and will ascertain 
 when the German Father will be required here. I hope 
 that your Reverence will not think of refusing this offer. 
 There is no occasion of speaking to the Visitor about this 
 matter since it is nothing new, but merely strengthening 
 
130 ^Arnold T)amen y S.J. 
 
 an old establishment. If this request is not granted the 
 consequence will be that many of the Germans will fall 
 into infidelity as they have done in Terre Haute, Indian- 
 apolis and many other places. This is truly a pressing 
 affair and I beg you for God's sake and for the sake of 
 the salvation of so many souls not to refuse it. 
 
 Bishop Luers called on me to give a retreat in his dio- 
 cese, but I told him I could not till next fall, when I 
 promised to give a retreat in his cathedral. I feel healthy 
 and strong, though I preached three times a day and heard 
 pretty much all the Confessions, as the pastor wished that 
 all should come to me. I heard nearly four hundred gen- 
 eral Confessions and of course I had very little sleep. 
 Your devoted son, 
 
 A. Damen, S.J. 
 
 Affairs went rapidly to a crisis in this parish, so 
 that Damen judged immediate action necessary. In his 
 next letter to the Provincial he says : 
 
 I have told the Bishop that we will take the German 
 congregation of the west side. I have taken this upon 
 myself, and scold me if you think I deserve it. But I 
 think that neither the glory of God nor the good of 
 souls nor the peace and happiness of our present congre- 
 gation would permit refusal of the offer. The German 
 congregation have given the Bishop a great deal of 
 trouble, their church is at present interdicted, many of the 
 people are going to the Lutheran church, others are 
 turning infidels, but yet they all have a kind of confidence 
 in us. Let Father Neiderkorn come here for two or three 
 weeks to arrange matters. I will direct him and will be with 
 him in all the transactions necessary. All these people 
 must be saved to God and if you do not do this all will go 
 to the devil. It is at the Bishop's request I write to your 
 Reverence and he tells me that he will be forever thankful 
 to your Reverence if you will let Father Neiderkorn come 
 here for a couple of weeks. Remove this scandal as it is 
 in your power to do so. Could I speak German fluently, I 
 would undertake the work, settle all the difficulties, re- 
 move the scandal and make them submissive to our good 
 
Currents and Qross-Currents 131 
 
 and kind Bishop. But I have so much difficulty in express- 
 ing myself properly in matters not familiar to me. . . . 
 For God's sake do not refuse this little service and let 
 Father Neiderkorn come at once, because I must leave 
 here on the ninth of January, i860. 
 
 Damen thus found himself with a strayed parish 
 on his hands and nobody to take care of it. His strong 
 appeal for Father Neiderkorn is another instance of 
 his ability to judge men. Father Neiderkorn was then 
 a novice, having entered the Society as a priest. Damen 
 could not have known him at all intimately, yet he chose 
 him for this delicate work of reviving a rebellious 
 parish. His judgment was justified by the fact that 
 four years later Father Neiderkorn came to Chicago 
 and for years superintended the whole work of the 
 Holy Family parish whenever Father Damen was away 
 giving missions, which meant a considerable portion 
 of the year. 
 
 The General, in this case, would not allow Father 
 Damen to assume the responsibility of another parish. 
 He wrote that he could not sanction too much spread- 
 ing out of work with the small number of men in hand. 
 He did not forbid him to co-operate in smoothing out 
 the trouble. And this Damen did with such effect that 
 the parish regained its spiritual health and grew into 
 the prosperous congregation of St. Francis of Assisi, 
 for some years the largest German parish in the city. 
 
 This experience of Damen with a single case opened 
 his view to the danger of leakage from the faith 
 throughout the country. Other cases like this one could, 
 he reasoned, occur anywhere and at any time. He 
 realized then a fact that is only too often feebly 
 realized, how deep-rooted a difficulty it is for older 
 people to change their language. Especially in the things 
 of religion, where the old prayers and long familiar 
 exercises of devotion in the mother tongue have be- 
 come a part of their lives, it is most trying to reverse 
 
132 ^Arnold Dametiy SJ. 
 
 the current and force it to dig out a new channel for 
 itself. It irritates anyone to be compelled to do a thing 
 awkwardly which he could do gracefully if allowed to 
 have his own way of doing it. It is like asking him to 
 do with his left hand what all his life he has been doing 
 with his right. Hence the instinct among those simi- 
 larly placed to keep by themselves and to follow their 
 familiar ways. And in the matter of public religious 
 worship, if they cannot have that way, they may re- 
 fuse to adopt any other, and leave the open practice 
 of their faith altogether. This is a problem which the 
 Catholic Church has had to face time after time with 
 the different nationalities emigrating to the United 
 States. In the beginning it is imperative to have pas- 
 tors who understand their temperament and know their 
 language. Otherwise, as Damen said, a heavy per- 
 centage of losses from the Church is certain. Later on, 
 as we have since experienced, another difficulty was to 
 enter with the first generation of American children of 
 foreign-born parents. The first-comers see that it is their 
 mother tongue that has enabled them to keep their re- 
 ligion intact. They are inclined then to reason that it 
 must be the same mother tongue which will keep the 
 religion of their children safe. But the mother tongue 
 of the children is English and now it is equally dan- 
 gerous to them as it was formerly to their parents, 
 to be without their mother tongue in their religious 
 life. They become isolated, not only religiously, but 
 socially and financially as well. I recall during the War, 
 meeting many boys born and raised almost to manhood 
 in America, who remained away from Confession until 
 the very day of their overseas departure, for the only 
 reason that they had been trained to confess in a for- 
 eign language and thought they could not confess in 
 English. The near approach of danger brought them 
 to the English-speaking priest and they were greatly 
 
Currents and C ross ~C urre nts *33 
 
 relieved to find that they could easily go to Confession 
 in their mother tongue. 
 
 This development of the original difficulty, however, 
 had not shown itself at the time Damen was working 
 to save the first-comers. This had to be done imme- 
 diately, he saw, or there would be no second generation 
 of Catholics. He would solve the problem by having 
 the General of the Society send German Jesuits to 
 America. The following letter was written in i860: 
 
 Very Reverend Father General: 
 
 It would be a great pleasure for me to write to your 
 Paternity to inform you of all that has taken place in Chi- 
 cago since my last letter, and of the abundant fruits that 
 have followed the missions I have had the happiness to 
 give. Overwhelmed with business at present, however, I 
 am compelled to keep this for a later time. Today I must 
 write about something most important for the salvation 
 of souls and the glory of God. 
 
 Our good Bishop has offered us a German community 
 here which he desires should be turned into a good parish. 
 One German Father would be enough, or at most two. 
 These Fathers could live in the same house with us, as 
 the German community is quite near our own, or rather 
 they are in the midst of us. We take charge of those 
 among them who are able to speak English. The Ger- 
 man Fathers would attend to those who speak nothing 
 but German. Reverend Father Provincial and other 
 Fathers think that we should accept this offer, but they 
 await your approbation. It is to urge your Paternity to 
 give this approbation that I write. 
 
 One German church in this city, a congregation of 
 some six thousand souls, is now closed. I shall not give 
 the history of these troubles, for it would take too long. 
 But with their church closed and without any priest, the 
 whole congregation will be lost if something is not done 
 for them. 
 
 I pray, I beg your Paternity, for the love of God and 
 for the salvation of souls, first, that you write immediately 
 to the Father Provincial of Germany that he may send a 
 
134 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 German Father to our house in Chicago to take care of 
 the German portion of our flock; and second, that you 
 send a few German Fathers to our province. There is 
 urgent need for this. If this is not done immediately thou- 
 sands of souls will be lost for eternity. O, how many 
 Fathers are there in Germany who have little to do and 
 who could be profitably employed here. Will not your 
 Paternity be touched with compassion and mercy for so 
 many souls redeemed by the blood of the God-Man and 
 over whom hell is triumphing to the great dishonor of God 
 and the sorrow of any good priest and Christian? 
 
 Write therefore, dear Father, write to the German 
 Provincial to send a few capable Fathers, a few good 
 preachers who would be able to give missions and re- 
 treats. Father Weninger has done much and is still doing 
 a great deal. But he is the only one, it can be said, for 
 the entire territory of North America. Would to God 
 that we had a dozen like him. 
 
 Again, my dear Father, I beg you through the blood of 
 Jesus Christ, do not refuse my request. If you agree to it 
 I will promise that, with the divine help, wonderful fruit 
 shall be the outcome. 
 
 I cannot close this letter. It seems to me that I have 
 not urged the matter sufficiently. But I hope everything 
 from the goodness of God and of the Blessed Virgin to 
 whom I have just recommended this whole affair. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 DAMEN FACES THE SCHOOL PROBLEM 
 
 4 A I *HE greatest religious fact in the United States 
 J- today/ writes Archbishop Spalding, 'is the 
 Catholic School system, maintained without any aid by 
 the people who love it/ The system, as it stands today, 
 is the flowering of a growth that has advanced from 
 humble beginnings and through many difficulties for 
 three hundred years. The very first schools of any kind 
 in the present territory of the United States were the 
 schools founded about 1600 in the Spanish colonies. 
 The French colonies likewise had their schools, and 
 both colonies regarded them as an integral part of their 
 work of civilization and supported them as such. The 
 English colonies, from a like motive, supported denomi- 
 national education, though for Catholics it depended 
 on local conditions whether they could or could not 
 secure their share of the public funds. When the States 
 adopted their constitutions, no change was made, and 
 in theory the Catholic schools today have the logical 
 right to recompense for the expense they incur in the 
 teaching they are doing for the state. But the gradual 
 rise of dissentient religious bodies in the country, with 
 its attendant friction and discord, resulted finally in the 
 establishment of the 'non-sectarian' schools now recog- 
 nized in practice and supported by the state. To the 
 Catholic ideal, this compromise on no religion of any 
 kind in the schools, is fatal, and today in the United 
 States, great numbers of non-Catholics are expressing 
 themselves as in accord with this ideal. Ex-President 
 Coolidge, in one of his presidential addresses, said : 
 
 135 
 
136 ^Arnold Damen, SJ. 
 
 Unless our halls of learning are real temples which are 
 to be approached by our youth in a spirit of reverence, 
 consecrated by worship of the truth, they will all end in 
 a delusion. The information that is acquired in them will 
 simply provide a greater capacity for evil. Our institu- 
 tions of learning must be dedicated to a higher purpose. 
 The life of our nation must rise to a higher realm. 
 
 Words like these, in even more emphatic form, are 
 being echoed by hundreds of sincere men who fear the 
 results to the country of a system of education which 
 deliberately excludes religion from its schools. And 
 Catholics will never believe that they can be good citi- 
 zens, let alone good men, without their religion to 
 support them. 
 
 After various attempts to obtain state aid for their 
 schools, in Detroit, in Lowell, in New York, which 
 were frustrated in each case by waves of angry bigotry, 
 Catholics became convinced that if they wished to 
 have the schools that were best for them and the coun- 
 try, they would have to build them themselves. The 
 Know-Nothing movement of the 'fifties was the last 
 argument that drove them to this conclusion. Since 
 that time they have developed a school system that cost 
 them probably two hundred million dollars to install, 
 with an annual overhead expense of twenty-five 
 millions. 
 
 It was exactly at this pivotal moment of the begin- 
 ning of Catholic school expansion that Damen had 
 come on the scene in Chicago. Within a single year 
 after the founding of the Holy Family parish, he was 
 facing the Catholic school problem in a more complex 
 form, perhaps, than any that has since arisen. Thou- 
 sands of children were crowding all about him, look- 
 ing for schools. He had one small wooden building, 
 no teachers and no money. Today our school building 
 grows up alongside our church, as a necessary adjunct. 
 
T>amen Faces the School Troblem 137 
 
 We consider a parish somehow incomplete without its 
 Catholic school. 
 
 In the early 'sixties this idea was not so clear in the 
 Catholic mind. A parish with a school was the excep- 
 tion. Catholics had not thoroughly waked up to the 
 danger of a non-religious school. And even when they 
 realized the danger, they had no money. Damen found 
 himself standing empty-handed before two thousand 
 children whose education he knew he was responsible 
 for. To buy land, to put up buildings, to secure teach- 
 ers and with no visible resources to draw upon — this 
 was the next problem he had to solve. It might be 
 thought that after the heavy strain of assembling and 
 organizing the parish and of building the church, 
 Damen might now repose on the work accomplished, 
 and leave the schools to be built by others later on. 
 Besides, the parish was drained of money. It seemed 
 impossible to go ahead so soon again after building 
 the big church, and begin another drive for more 
 money. But, in spite of all this, Damen was deter- 
 mined to go on and see the school problem through. 
 He saw, as clearly as any man in America ever saw, 
 that the parish without its Catholic school is crippled, 
 that the faith would die out in a generation or two if 
 the young were not firmly set in it. He was not a man 
 of half measures, either for the present or the future. 
 He saw the school problem steadily and saw it whole. 
 And he planned not a school, but a complete system of 
 grade schools, a high school and a college. When first 
 he took up the work of providing education for his 
 flock there was but one Catholic school on the entire 
 west side of Chicago — St. Patrick's, teaching some 
 hundreds of children in the grades. The old Foster 
 school was the single public school within the parish 
 confines. That was all for a population that kept swarm- 
 ing into the district, bringing large families with them. 
 Damen began with two wooden wings built, transept- 
 
138 ^Arnold Damen, S.J. 
 
 like, off the church. He did the best he could with this 
 until the new church was finished. After that he used 
 the old church for classrooms. This carried him along, 
 though the building bulged with children, until 1864. 
 In May of that year the school burned down. The 
 basement of the large church was hurriedly fitted up 
 for schoolrooms, and classes went ahead. Shortly after 
 the burning of the school, Father Coppens met Mr. 
 Onahan, one of the earliest prominent members of the 
 parish. Father Coppens said it was too bad that Father 
 Damen had lost his school. Mr. Onahan said : 
 
 'Don't pity Father Damen. Pity us. We'll have to 
 get busy now and build a real school this time. Father 
 Damen will have us at that right away.' 
 
 Mr. Onahan was correct. The new school was of 
 course an imperative need and Father Damen and his 
 helpers started out without delay to provide it. Once 
 more the parish was called into the breach. They re- 
 sponded so well, that in two months the cornerstone 
 of the new building was laid and in eight months, 
 January, 1865, it was ready for occupancy. This was 
 the first complete Catholic school in Chicago, the equal 
 of any public school of the period, with dimensions of 
 one hundred and twenty-five by sixty-five feet and a 
 height of eighty feet, well lighted and set in the center 
 of a wide open space with ample playground room 
 about it. Two thousand pupils could be accommodated 
 in it. Its cost was a large sum for that day, seventy- 
 five thousand dollars. 
 
 When we recall that the Civil War was then at its 
 height and had been raging for three years previous, 
 we shall better grasp what seventy-five thousand dol- 
 lars meant. The parish had been steadily losing its men, 
 families were stinted, strained for support, money was 
 scarce, the thoughts and the interests of the people 
 were hovering over the distant battlefields. It was an 
 uncertain and perilous time. Nevertheless, the vigor 
 
Damen Faces the School Troblem 139 
 
 of Damen' s driving power was enough to overcome 
 every handicap. In spite of the war, he fixed the parish 
 mind so steadily upon the prime necessity of a school 
 for their children that he drew them along with him, 
 without a break, until the finish. How they got the 
 money together to pay for it, old parishioners used to 
 say, they never could explain. The pinch of the Civil 
 War had them down to their last dime, they thought, 
 but whenever Damen appealed for funds, they always 
 seemed to find another dime under that one. It was 
 like the widow's cruse. When the huge school, com- 
 pleted, rose before them after only eight months of 
 campaigning, they used to stand looking at it and won- 
 dering how they did it. 
 
 It would appear that Damen and the parish traveled 
 farthest when they traveled lightest. They had built 
 a big church plant during a panic; they put up their 
 biggest school during a civil war. After these two ex- 
 periences, they were hardy veterans, and were con- 
 vinced that with Damen to lead them they could face 
 any situation and win through. This first school was 
 the Holy Family School par excellence, the oldest child 
 in the future family of schools, and its younger broth- 
 ers and sisters always recognized its historic prece- 
 dence. It was exclusively for boys and it became known 
 as the 'Brothers' School,' from the fact that two Jesuit 
 Brothers, Martin Corcoran, S.J., and Thomas O'Neil, 
 S.J., were the first teachers there. Just at this tide in 
 the affairs of the parish, Damen secured the services 
 of the Reverend Andrew O'Neil, brother of Thomas, 
 and appointed him head of the schools of the parish. 
 Father O'Neil was perhaps as fine an organizer and 
 director of schools as the last century has seen. From 
 the moment he took charge of the Holy Family School, 
 and for thirty-five years after, it was a furnace of 
 energy. Fife and drum corps, brass bands, cadets and 
 Zouaves, poured out of the place, indicating their fiery 
 
140 ^Arnold T)amen> SJ. 
 
 reaction to the Civil War; ball teams, picnics, skating 
 parties in the winter on the thick unbroken ice of the 
 river or away across the wide frozen prairies to the 
 west; in the summer, bands of swimmers hiking to 
 the lake and playing like dolphins for the whole day in 
 the water ; and, we shudder to relate, other bands, not 
 appreciating a hike, stopping at the river and plunging 
 in there. Also, to be strictly historical, we only par- 
 tially regret to say that there were fights, perhaps 
 plenty of them. Very likely it did not surprise the edu- 
 cator then as it does the modern uplifter to perceive 
 that, after all, boys fight. And at that, the youngsters 
 were only doing at intervals with their fists what a 
 large portion of the grown-ups had been doing for five 
 years continuously with rifles. At any rate, these are 
 the traditions that float down to us from the old-timers, 
 told for the most part with chuckles of glee and with 
 a hidden yearning — one can feel it, listening to the 
 telling — that they should like to be back there and do 
 it all over again. 
 
 But if there was play outside the school, within it 
 there was work. Those were the days when boys took 
 books home from school to study them at night under 
 the kerosene lamp. We have triumphantly emancipated 
 ourselves from the crude notions of that prehistoric 
 age; we have thrown out the kerosene lamp, and the 
 books and home study with it. But at that time it was 
 not considered cruel to let a boy use his arms and legs 
 most of the day and then to insist that he use his brain 
 for a part of the night. We had not evolved into the 
 'movie' period as yet. Child study, in the days of real 
 sport, did not mean perspective lorgnette observation 
 of a youngster, with the object of statistically discov- 
 ering how a maximum of shredded information could 
 be injected into its system with a minimum of recep- 
 tive effort. Child study simply meant that the child had 
 to study and that was all there was to it, unless Billy 
 
Domett Faces the School Troblem 141 
 
 wanted to feel the rod, which was the chief method of 
 administering calories in Billy's day. It wasn't thought 
 possible then to inhale education like cigarettes. The 
 idea of carrying on a school without home study was 
 in that day considered ridiculous. Billy could take his 
 choice between digesting the books or the birch. Most 
 of the time he chose the books. It is probably a little 
 better luck, after all, to be whipped by the school prin- 
 cipal while it's early, than to be pursued by the police 
 when it's entirely too late. 
 
 The writer has met many men in many parts of the 
 United States who were trained in the Holy Family 
 School, and it always has been clear to him that they 
 regard it with admiration and affection. The detailed 
 memories they retain of the staff and of their school- 
 mates, touched with a humor that warms every story 
 they tell, indicate that an impression was made on their 
 young souls that age cannot wither nor custom stale. 
 The History of the Holy Family Parish sums up in a 
 brief and modest paragraph the work of that school: 
 
 At the present time there are to be found many men, 
 some old, some middle-aged, some even youthful, who 
 look back with pride and satisfaction to their school-boy 
 days in the old 'Brothers' School.' These may be met in 
 every state in the Union and in almost every country 
 under the sun, from the diamond fields of Africa to the 
 gold fields of Alaska. They will be found in every walk of 
 civil life, frequently holding very responsible positions — 
 presidents of a railroad or telegraph system, doctors, law- 
 yers, judges — indeed in all vocations, the ecclesiastical and 
 religious states being well represented. 
 
 That religion was indeed a very strong feature of 
 their school life may be taken from the single fact that 
 the parish acolythical society, perhaps the finest that 
 ever Chicago has seen, whether for numbers or disci- 
 pline, was recruited altogether from these apparently 
 
142 ^Arnold T)amen, S.J. 
 
 harum-scarum boys who tumbled about in the lake, and 
 even in the river, yelled themselves hoarse at ball games, 
 and when the solemn code of boy honor demanded it, 
 punched each other with their fists. However they may 
 have deviated from the rigid prescription of meticu- 
 lous etiquette, in the two big essentials of character 
 they all bore a striking family resemblance to their 
 pastor — in their energy and their faith. 
 
 We have said that a characteristic of Father Da- 
 men's attitude toward those who worked with him was 
 that when any department was going well under the 
 leadership of the head he had appointed, he never in- 
 terfered with its operation, but always encouraged it 
 to keep on in its forward course. Father Andrew 
 O'Neil, the head of the schools, was one whom Damen 
 absolutely trusted. Under his management the schools, 
 one after another, as they were established in various 
 parts of the parish, became not only efficient from the 
 study point of view, but a family feeling was fostered 
 among them that made them harmonize like one big 
 school. This sense of solidarity naturally extended itself 
 to the parents, so that the schools added not a little 
 to the creation of unity in the parish. How this worked 
 out in practice may be inferred from a single example. 
 
 The Sunday School Association gave two entertain- 
 ments every year, usually on the successive nights of 
 March seventeenth and eighteenth. In these, all the 
 schools took part, each giving one or more numbers, 
 and the evening concluded with a short play given by 
 the boys. The school hall was very large, with a gal- 
 lery, but it was not large enough to hold the crowds 
 that came to that entertainment. Fire laws in Chicago 
 then were not what they are now, and when the cur- 
 tain went up for the first number, the hall, gallery, 
 aisles, vestibules and stairs were packed to the last foot 
 with people, everyone knowing everybody else and all 
 
Teamen Faces the School Troblem 143 
 
 forgetting the discomfort of the jam in their interest 
 in the show. A typical holiday gathering, brimming 
 with good nature. 
 
 Just before the play went on, Father O'Neil would 
 range some of the school classes on the stage and pro- 
 ceed to show the parents how well their children knew 
 the catechism and Bible History. Father O'Neil, out 
 in the audience, quizzed them hither and yon from 
 matter all over the book. He was a skillful questioner, 
 not seeking to puzzle the child, but to get clear, intel- 
 ligent answers. After they had answered beautifully 
 and were well in their stride, the parents swelling with 
 conscious pride at the way their Johnny or Mary had 
 answered the hard questions of the priest, Father 
 O'Neil, himself beaming with delight, would step to the 
 footlights and challenge the visiting clergy, mostly the 
 Fathers of the parish, to try to catch any of them. The 
 Fathers always accepted the challenge. The audience 
 went on tiptoe. The results were not always according 
 to schedule, at least Father O'Neil's schedule. On one 
 occasion he was examining the children in Bible His- 
 tory, and at what he judged the psychological moment, 
 he flourished his challenge. One of the Fathers imme- 
 diately took it up and, selecting a small girl from the 
 group, asked: 
 
 'Mary, who swallowed the whale V 
 
 'Jonas,' Mary called out in excitement. 
 
 The roar that went up from the house completely 
 drowned Father O'Neil's protests. All he could do was 
 to wave his hands at them. 
 
 The next question was, 'How many Gods are there ?* 
 
 'There is three Gods.' Another storm of merriment. 
 
 'How many Persons in God ?' 
 
 'There are three Persons in God/ answered Mary, 
 recovering a little. 
 
 'Which is the true Church?' 
 
144 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 'The Holy Family Church,' said Mary, again run- 
 ning off the rails. 
 
 'Who baptized you?' 
 
 'Father Setters/ Father Setters was almost the offi- 
 cial administrator of baptism in the parish, and a great 
 favorite. The answer naturally brought out more cheer- 
 ing, particularly from the gallery, crowded with young 
 boys who had all been baptized by Father Setters. 
 
 'Where will the good people go when they die?' 
 
 'To heaven/ said Mary. 
 
 'Where will those in the gallery go?' 
 
 'To hell,' said Mary, who was all set for the question 
 about the 'wicked' people. 
 
 This answer broke everything up. Father O'Neil, 
 who was himself a wit, had to acknowledge he was 
 beaten. And the play which followed had a hard time 
 getting started across the footlights. 
 
 After the Holy Family School, the next one was or- 
 ganized by the Religious of the Sacred Heart. As soon 
 as Bishop O'Regan had secured Father Damen and the 
 Jesuits for the diocese, he requested his aid in the fur- 
 ther expansion of Catholicism in Chicago. He wrote to 
 Damen as follows : 
 
 Chicago, Illinois, March 21, 1857. 
 Reverend dear Friend: 
 
 ... I have now another trouble to give you. I want to 
 bring the Ladies of the Sacred Heart to Chicago and I 
 want this to be done this summer. I will give all the 
 patronage in my power, and this is the only aid I can 
 give, but at present this patronage is money or its worth. 
 It stands thus : The Sisters of Mercy are to give up their 
 boarding school this summer and to convert that house 
 into a hospital. They now have forty-six boarders or more, 
 and all these at once would pass into the school of the 
 Ladies of the Sacred Heart, with many others, I am 
 sure. . . . 
 
T>amen Faces the School Troblem 145 
 
 Do, dear Father and friend, complete the good work 
 you have begun. Use all your influence to have this ef- 
 fected, as now is the fitting time. Property can be had 
 not far from your church and in three months a house 
 can be finished conveniently. When opened it will be filled 
 — it will be a transfer here from one house to another. I 
 write today to Madame Gallwey, and through God and His 
 Virgin Mother, I implore success for this good and holy 
 project. I depend very much on you. Write soon and work 
 for the Sacred Heart's sake. 
 
 Yours very affectionately, 
 
 Rt. Rev. Antony O'Regan, 
 
 Bishop of Chicago. 
 
 This was the beginning of a correspondence through 
 which Father Damen brought to Chicago, in 1858, 
 Madame Gallwey and ten other of the Religious of the 
 Sacred Heart, to found their first Community in Chi- 
 cago. They resided at first outside the parish, on Wa- 
 bash Avenue. A little later they rented the mansion of 
 W. S. Johnston, with its grounds at Rush and Illinois 
 Streets, and erected there a large frame building which 
 they used as a school. Their idea was ultimately to get 
 to the west side for their permanent home and within 
 a few years they had acquired twelve acres of land on 
 Taylor Street and built a convent there which they 
 occupied first on August 20, i860. 
 
 Transplanting a school in that day was rather a more 
 complicated matter than we would make of it today, 
 when we can almost send things by radio. Bad streets, 
 when there were any streets at all, together with primi- 
 tive moving equipment, made transportation an occa- 
 sion for practicing virtue. Father Damen was close to 
 the work, however. He called for volunteers, and 
 shortly thereafter a long procession of every variety of 
 vehicle that could be drawn by horses was seen winding 
 slowly o'er the lea in the direction of Rush and Illinois 
 Streets. Drays, trucks, wagons of all shapes, sizes and 
 
146 ^Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 colors bumped and wiggled their way across the bil- 
 lowy prairie, and returned jubilantly with all the con- 
 vent household fixtures aboard. And for the next few 
 days, while the nuns were busy setting their home in 
 order, kind neighbors relieved them of the problem of 
 cooking by sending in abundant table supplies. 
 
 Their household goods safe in port, the next thing 
 was to retrieve their school, the frame building which 
 they had left over on the Johnston block. How were 
 they to get that across the prairie ? Nothing simpler to 
 the inventive Chicago mind. Without drawing a nail 
 or disturbing a board, the contractor moved the build- 
 ing down to the river's edge, loaded it on a mud scow, 
 floated it gently down the stream to Taylor Street and 
 sent it west across that street to its destination. The first 
 parochial school exclusively for the Holy Family girls 
 had arrived. 
 
 Four years later the nuns started an academy and 
 boarding school, under the title The Seminary of the 
 Sacred Heart, thus being among the first teachers in 
 Chicago who opened the way systematically to the 
 higher education of Catholic girls. The academy in a 
 short time won a high reputation for thoroughness of 
 training and in its day graduated many of Chicago's 
 distinguished women. The parochial school, too, was 
 continuously successful and grew until it registered a 
 thousand pupils. 
 
 The Religious of the Sacred Heart conducted their 
 schools in the parish for forty-seven years. Although 
 they did, and still do, sterling work in parish schools 
 whenever circumstances demand it, yet their specific 
 vocation lies in academy and college teaching. By the 
 end of their career in the Holy Family parish an en- 
 tirely new, and largely non-Catholic population had 
 filled the old district and their opportunity for training 
 in higher studies automatically ceased. 'Very reluc- 
 tantly,' says the History of the Holy Family Parish, 
 
T>amen Faces the School Troblem 147 
 
 'they gave up the home they loved so well and the peo- 
 ple in whose midst they had labored for half a century. 
 It was with anguish of soul that the thousands of 
 friends they had *nade during so many years, saw these 
 nuns depart, never to return. The great influx of a 
 new population caused the older residents to seek 
 homes in other parts of the city, so they had no alter- 
 native but to depart, although with sorrow/ 
 
 Their present college at Lake Forest is a continuation 
 of the old Seminary of the Sacred Heart opened under 
 Father Damen's care in i860. In connection with the 
 original Convent of the Sacred Heart, an interesting 
 historical note was sent by Mother Sheridan. It in- 
 forms us that the first religious procession, not only 
 in the Holy Family parish, but in the city of Chicago, 
 had its terminus at this Convent and here, also, the 
 first open-air Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament 
 was given in 1861. 
 
 The entrance to the Convent [Mother Sheridan wrote] 
 was then very high from the ground to the doorway. Tay- 
 lor Street had not yet been graded and that part of the 
 west side was often under water. From the corner of Elev- 
 enth and May Streets west and north was an open prairie, 
 not a house within the area. 
 
 The procession was made up of the Sodalities, wearing 
 no distinguishing dress, except for the newly formed St. 
 Ann's (later the Married Ladies) Sodality. These wore 
 black veils. The girls of the Sacred Heart parish school 
 were in white. There were no banners, no band, but there 
 was lively faith and fervent devotion. 
 
 The line of march was along May street to Taylor and 
 west on Taylor to the convent. An altar had been erected 
 and decorated in the vestibule of the convent and the con- 
 vent pupils, in white and wearing white veils, knelt on the 
 front steps. As the procession halted and the Blessed Sac- 
 rament was placed on the improvised altar, Reverend 
 Father Damen, who had directed all the movements, 
 turned to the mixed crowd of Catholics and non-Catholics 
 
148 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 that filled the space on the prairie in front of the convent, 
 and Damen's command : 'Hats off ! Kneel down !' rang out. 
 The spectators, every one of them, knelt on the ground, 
 and there in the prairie, the first open-air Benediction of 
 the Blessed Sacrament was given. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 A DISCOVERY AND ITS RESULTS 
 
 FATHER DAMEN was still besieged by the grow- 
 ing crowds of children trying to enter the schools. 
 There seemed to be no end of them. Lay teachers were 
 engaged in numbers and they proved very efficient. But 
 the supply of such teachers was limited. Moreover, to 
 depend on securing skillful instructors thus picked up 
 by lucky chance was too haphazard a method of con- 
 ducting a steady system of schools. Some unfailing 
 source of trained teaching must be sought that would 
 meet and supply the continuously increasing demand 
 for more teachers and hold the schools firmly up to a 
 set standard of study. Besides, the strain of numbers 
 was telling. Two schools were already not enough. The 
 stream of applicants for admission threatened to end 
 in many of the children being left out in the street. 
 Father Damen was again back in the position he had 
 been with his first little church — too many people and 
 not enough space. The critical period of the parish 
 education was upon him. 
 
 Just at this time, a mission tour took him through 
 the State of Iowa. There he began to observe, in one 
 place and another, the teaching work of a young 
 Community, the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary, familiarly known now among Catholics 
 as the B.V.M.'s. 
 
 The foundation of this Institute was begun in the 
 city of Dublin, but its thorough organization was 
 achieved only after the whole Community had come to 
 the United States and had located their mother house 
 
 149 
 
ISO ^Arnold r Damen i S.J. 
 
 in Dubuque. They were among the first, if not the 
 very first, of the religious Congregations of women in 
 this country to devote themselves especially to the par- 
 ish school. At the time Damen first met them, they were 
 entirely occupied in the diocese of Dubuque, establish- 
 ing schools for young children in the towns of Iowa. 
 Recruited as they were from the ranks of American 
 Catholics, they had the initial advantage of understand- 
 ing from the first the character of the American child. 
 Excellently trained, too, in the religious life, their uni- 
 formity of method, together with what we may call 
 their natural flair for teaching the young, enabled them 
 to obtain remarkable results. 
 
 It did not take long for one with Damen's intuition 
 to see that here was exactly the Community he needed 
 for the work in Chicago. Immediately he wrote to the 
 Reverend T. J. Donaghoe, the founder and superior 
 of the Congregation, and asked for the help of the 
 Sisters in the Holy Family parish. At the same time he 
 prepared the way by purchasing a large two-story 
 building on Maxwell Street, originally erected for a 
 chair factory, and fitting it up for school purposes. A 
 rapid-fire correspondence between him and Father 
 Donaghoe brought all details to a satisfactory issue and 
 in midsummer of the same year, 1867, Damen wrote 
 to Father Donaghoe: 
 
 The school is nearly ready for your Sisters. We desire 
 very much that three or four Sisters would be here by 
 the twelfth of August to open the school in order to keep 
 the children from the public schools. We have now 1,000 
 boys in our school and we should have as many girls, 
 whereas we have only seven hundred, but by getting your 
 Sisters we hope this evil will be remedied. We would like 
 to get nine Sisters, but try to send three or four at once, if 
 possible; and let them be good teachers so as to make a 
 good impression, for the first impression is generally the 
 
c/f Discovery and Its Results 151 
 
 lasting one. I need not say that I have the approbation of 
 our good Bishop. 
 
 Your devoted friend, 
 
 A. Damen, S. J. 
 
 Father Donaghoe wrote to Father Laurent at Mus- 
 catine, asking if Sister Mary Agatha could be taken for 
 the Chicago mission without detriment to the Musca- 
 tine school. It was a sacrifice for Father Laurent, as 
 she was his mainstay in the school, but he gave a noble 
 answer. He writes : 
 
 Your letter, delivered to me by Sister Mary Agatha, 
 surprised me, but it gave me great joy on account of the 
 good news that it announces. I think the mission of our 
 Sisters is going to be revealed to them as it was revealed 
 to those of the Visitation. Our Sisters are called to fill a 
 position which no Order yet was intended for, and that is, 
 teaching our parochial schools, and popularizing Catho- 
 licity among the masses. They will not depend any more on 
 one diocese and they will have the Jesuits to guide them, 
 which is saying a great deal. Thus you will be able to 
 say, 'I planted, the Jesuits watered, God has given the 
 increase.' I think you could not make a better choice 
 than Sister Mary Agatha for the new place, and in a 
 few years Chicago will speak for itself. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 P. Laurent. 
 
 Early in August, nine Sisters arrived in Chicago, 
 and a few months later two more were sent. On August 
 19, 1867, St. Aloysius School was opened with five 
 hundred pupils, filling all the rooms, and still leaving 
 an overflow of one hundred and fifty pupils on the out- 
 side. Damen had foreseen this possibility also and pro- 
 vided for it with another building on West Eighteenth 
 Street, now St. Stanislaus School. Thither went the 
 exiles from St. Aloysius School with two of the Sis- 
 ters, and the two schools opened on the same day. 
 Damen had bought a residence for the Sisters on Hal- 
 
152 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 sted Street and from this they went each morning to 
 the schools. On September twelfth, less than a month 
 from the date of the first opening of these schools, 
 Father Damen wrote to Father Donaghoe : 
 
 I am thankful to God that thus far the work of your 
 good Sisters has been blessed by Divine Providence, al- 
 though Sister Mary Agatha has been sick all the time. 
 The Sisters have now about seven hundred children. We 
 must hope that we shall be able to build a convent school 
 for them. We have now 2,500 children — boys and girls. 
 Is it not a glorious work to form so many youthful hearts 
 to piety, virtue and religion ? The Sisters are good, humble 
 and obedient and work with great zeal. Thanks be to God. 
 
 Within two years, Damen had built for them a large 
 convent, with a school building attached for the upper 
 grades and a high school course. And in a short time 
 twelve hundred children were in attendance. 
 
 In an article in the New World 'The Jesuits in Chi- 
 cago,' April 14, 1900, Mr. W. J. Onahan says : 
 
 The introduction of the Sisters of Charity of the B. 
 V. M. was one of the happiest events for Catholic educa- 
 tion in this parish and city. This wonderful Community 
 seemed to possess, from the beginning, a special fitness 
 and aptitude for the task of parochial school work, into 
 which they entered with the greatest ardor and for which 
 the Sisters have demonstrated the highest capability. 
 
 Indeed, the Jesuit parochial schools have long been an 
 example and an incentive for the other parochial schools 
 of the city. They would not suffer, it is safe to say, by 
 comparison in any particular with schools of the highest 
 rank anywhere, whether public or parochial. 
 
 Today in Chicago, a generation after the above was 
 written, it would be difficult to maintain that any one 
 parish school is in the lead of any other. The organiza- 
 tion of the Chicago Catholic school system has so 
 broadened and advanced, the teaching personnel has 
 been so thoroughly trained and the general supervision 
 
Jl. Discovery <md Its Results 153 
 
 of the whole field so well sustained, that I believe it is 
 now safe to say of the Chicago parish schools en masse 
 what was claimed for the Jesuit schools of fifty years 
 ago. They do not yield in general efficiency to any 
 schools anywhere. 
 
 We should not be historically just, however, did we 
 not record that Father Damen and his helpers were 
 the pioneers in this field of systematic organization, 
 not only for Chicago but for the entire United States. 
 
 This school campaign of Damen gives us another 
 characteristic instance of his insight, vigorous resolu- 
 tion and quick and decisive action. The whole business 
 of selecting his teachers, securing two schools and a 
 Sisters' residence, and starting seven hundred children 
 into their grade studies, was accomplished in five 
 months. His first letter on the subject was written at 
 the end of February and everything was in running 
 order shortly after the middle of August. 
 
 To Damen also must be given the credit of opening 
 the first great channel for the energies of the Sisters of 
 Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They were a tiny 
 stream in the Dubuque diocese. With their coming to 
 Chicago, they broadened into a great river. This move- 
 ment, too, crystallized for them their specific vocation, 
 in the words of Father Laurent, 'to fill a position which 
 no Order was yet intended for, teaching in our pa- 
 rochial schools and popularizing Catholicity among the 
 masses/ This foundation work, all genuine educators 
 insist, is the most vitally important in the entire field 
 of education. 
 
 The demand for more schools continued. In 1872, 
 St. Veronica's School, now St. Pius', was built, on 
 Ashland Avenue near Twenty-second Street. The 
 Guardian Angel School, on Forquer Street, followed 
 in 1875. The year 1877 again saw two schools come 
 in, St. Joseph's on West Thirteenth, and St. Agnes', 
 on Morgan Street, a total of eight schools built and put 
 
154 ^Arnold Teamen, SJ. 
 
 into operation in seventeen years, with a roll call of 
 approximately five thousand children, the largest single 
 parish school attendance in the world. Able co-opera- 
 tion certainly accounts for the perfection of this growth 
 and again, as in previous cases, Father Damen secured 
 this by the choice of a capable leader in Mother Mary 
 Agatha Hurley, whose work he had observed for the 
 first time in Muscatine. As these schools sprang up one 
 after another, the parishioners provided the funds for 
 the buildings and the Sisters kept supplying strong 
 staffs of teachers. God rewarded the generosity of both. 
 The parish became a nursery for religious vocations. 
 In 1922 an effort was made to ascertain the number 
 entering the Religious Orders of women, and the list, 
 which the compilers state is not complete, gives the 
 names of four hundred and fourteen persons, of whom 
 two hundred and fifty-two became members of the 
 Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
 Such an educational enterprise, training from four 
 to five thousand children annually, could not escape 
 public notice. It became news for the press. In 1876, 
 the Chicago Post and Mail published a review of the 
 Catholic schools of the city, basing the article upon 
 the Holy Family system. It says in part : 
 
 Though differing from the common schools in many 
 details, yet these very differences form, not merely an 
 interesting field of study, but one pregnant with sugges- 
 tions of improvement in the public school system, now 
 so*boasted of by educational men. 
 
 These schools are not strictly free, and yet no one, by 
 reason of poverty is debarred from the educational privi- 
 leges there afforded. The children of parents whose 
 pocket-books are of ordinary length, are taxed from fifty 
 cents to a dollar a month, according to the studies taught 
 them. Children whose parents are not able to shoulder 
 this tax, are allowed to pursue their studies side by side 
 with the others and are charged no tuition. Nor is this 
 
Jt Discovery and Its Results 155 
 
 lack of means allowed to humiliate the poorer children, 
 as no distinction is made between the two classes, and the 
 Brother having charge of the office finances is supposed 
 to be the only one who knows whether a pupil pays tuition 
 or not. 
 
 The course of study is generally such as will give the 
 student a thorough mastery of all the branches as taught 
 in the graded schools, with the addition of a complete 
 course in bookkeeping, and commercial forms and law for 
 the boys and instruction in needle work for the girls. Con- 
 siderable attention is also paid to music, both vocal and 
 instrumental. Of course, as is well understood, much at- 
 tention is paid to religious instruction, Bible History being 
 quite a prominent feature of this part of the course, and 
 the knowledge of sacred history possessed by some of the 
 younger pupils would put to shame that often displayed 
 by the preachers in the pulpits of other denominations. 
 
 When Father Damen opened his first school he was 
 unable to secure for it any teachers from Religious 
 Orders. He engaged lay teachers, therefore, for this 
 school. What was at first a doubtful experiment, turned 
 to so fortunate a success that even when the oppor- 
 tunity for a change came, he kept to the original plan. 
 For thirty years, these teachers, seventy-five all told, 
 under the direction of Father and Brother O'Neil, 
 formed the staff of the Holy Family school. They were 
 all Catholics, they loved teaching, and they had caught 
 from Father Damen the apostolic idea of spreading 
 the Gospel through education. And the boys who were 
 trained by them, now men well on in years, as they 
 ramble back in memory through the lights and shadows 
 of their school days, still affectionately recall the names 
 of their teachers in the 'Brothers' School/ 
 
 Among these teachers, perhaps the most distinguished 
 was Mr. Michael Carmody, one of the very last of the 
 Irish schoolmasters who helped to make history in the 
 United States during the eighteenth and nineteenth 
 
156 Arnold T)amen y SJ. 
 
 centuries. The History of the Holy Family Parish 
 describes him as follows : 
 
 Mr. Carmody was a man of exceptional talent and was 
 closely connected with all the school work of the parish 
 for twenty-five years. He endeared himself especially to 
 all the boys, even though he was a strict disciplinarian, for 
 he was always just. 
 
 During those twenty-five years, Mr. Carmody lived in 
 the school building and there raised his family of four 
 sons and three daughters; and, despite the many annoy- 
 ances incident to his position, was of such a disposition 
 as apparently to soar above them. 
 
 Many men yet living bear witness to his ability as a 
 teacher. His intimates and acquaintances pronounced him 
 the most agreeable of companions. He could converse with 
 bishop, priest and statesman on topics familiar to their 
 station and turn to a child or a school boy and entertain 
 him with conversation within his comprehension. He was 
 a welcome guest everywhere he went and the chosen com- 
 panion of Father O'Neil and Brother O'Neil on their 
 vacations and excursions. 
 
 It would be difficult, we think, to duplicate that type 
 of man today, or to reproduce that group of teachers. 
 
 Although these five thousand children were thus dis- 
 tributed under the care of three distinct teaching bodies, 
 namely, the Religious of the Sacred Heart, the Sisters 
 of Charity and the association of lay teachers, the 
 esprit de corps was perfect. Father Damen gave equal 
 attention and equal encouragement to all. Not the least 
 semblance of friction developed. On the contrary, the 
 most cordial co-operation prevailed. Whenever the op- 
 portunity arrived of their coming together in their en- 
 tertainments, picnics, church gatherings, they mingled 
 freely and fraternally, with no artificial lines of cleav- 
 age visible at any point. 
 
 The children thus grew up together, knowing each 
 other intimately, ignorant of the snobbery of caste, and 
 
c/f Discovery and Its Results 157 
 
 unconsciously learning to know themselves through the 
 steady mutual attrition of character that children in- 
 stinctively know so well how to bring into action when 
 moving freely together. They played and prayed and 
 studied and, when affairs of state demanded, fought 
 together, and so laid the basis of friendships that after 
 years proved enduring. Among the families of the 
 parish there were not many cases of the 'only child,' 
 and so the 'spoiled child' and the 'pet' were rather of 
 rare occurrence. 
 
 Altogether they were a red-blooded, swift-moving, 
 hardy, carefree little army who learned how to travel 
 together and to be independent individually at the same 
 time — the ideal prospect for future valuable citizens. 
 Among their accomplishments was that of studying 
 well. We have records of their annual closing exer- 
 cises, which occupied a full week, school by school. 
 Here is a summing up of one of them that may be 
 taken as a sample. 
 
 The week for the closing exercises of the six parochial 
 schools of the Holy Family Parish was indeed a busy 
 one and full of agreeable excitement. Two hundred and 
 fifty to three hundred pupils took part in some of the ex- 
 hibitions. The exercises consisted of dramas, dialogues, 
 farces, declamations and concert recitations, mimic and 
 cadet drill, vocal and instrumental music, tableaux and 
 calisthenic performances. . . . 
 
 The medal for good conduct was awarded to James 
 Dwyer. The medal for Christian Doctrine, merited by 
 sixty-eight pupils, fell by lot to Joseph Johnson. The 
 medal for Church History, merited by twenty-two, fell by 
 lot to John Stafford. The medal for United States His- 
 tory, merited by thirty-nine, fell by lot to John Keefe. 
 The medal for geography, merited by fifty-three pupils, 
 fell by lot to Garret Fitzgerald. The medal for Arith- 
 metic, merited by forty-one pupils, fell by lot to John 
 Pierce. The medal for Grammar fell by lot to David 
 Leahy. 
 
158 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 There were medals for reading and for drawing. In 
 those days good reading was considered an art. Thirty- 
 nine received medals for perfect attendance throughout 
 the year. Yet, in spite of the remarkable proficiency 
 of such a large number of youngsters in so many 
 branches, only four were judged up to the school stand- 
 ard for constant application to study. And only one 
 was mentioned as meriting the medal for good conduct. 
 Those schools evidently meant something when they 
 asked for behavior and study. 
 
 To the present-day observer it may seem strange 
 that so many were tied for honors in the different 
 branches. But it does not seem at all strange to any- 
 one who was there. The present writer, who went 
 through a school taught on similar lines, can testify 
 to its entire possibility. The way in which the boys of 
 that day in Chicago could recite verbatim whole pages 
 of history, parse the most tangled sentences, read in- 
 telligently, spot the most recondite towns on the map 
 and tear through arithmetic sums, would drive the 
 average 'grader' of today to despair. Oral tests were 
 the order of the day, and the instant the unfortunate 
 reciter dropped the smallest stitch in his performance, 
 fifty hands went up and fifty young minds viciously 
 pounced like vultures on the dead spot. The intensity 
 and the speed of those early days of Chicago now seem 
 like a dream. But it was a fact then. The birch cer- 
 tainly had something to do with it, and I sometimes 
 wonder if it is not possible today to introduce its 
 substitute, some form of robot, say, that will swing the 
 rod at the psychological moment, and thus obtain the 
 old results, while sparing the feelings of the sociologi- 
 cal parent. 
 
 The children of the parish were not allowed, either, 
 selfishly to suppose that they were a world unto them- 
 selves. They were taught to reach abroad in their ac- 
 tivities and to realize that they formed but a part of. 
 
e/f Discovery and Its Results 159 
 
 a larger community, whose needs they must learn to 
 consider. As a practical example of this idea, we men- 
 tion the training they received in aiding the poor. 
 Perhaps the earliest instance of a children's drive for 
 the orphans is to be found in the Holy Family parish. 
 An annual feature of the school activities was the re- 
 ception given by the Holy Family children to the or- 
 phans, on December twenty-eighth, the Feast of the 
 Holy Innocents. We give a description of one of these 
 receptions taken from the Church Calendar of nearly 
 sixty years ago : 
 
 The day was beautiful and clear, and about one hun- 
 dred and eighty of the orphans of St. Joseph's Orphan 
 Asylum, in care of the Sisters, set out for Holy Family 
 School. On their arrival they were greeted by music by the 
 Juvenile Band, and at once escorted to the hall of the 
 school. Father O'Neil then came on the stage and in 
 the name of the children and the people of the parish 
 welcomed the orphans and their self-sacrificing guardians. 
 The orphans sang some songs, which were enjoyed by 
 the audience. A little drama was performed by the pupils 
 of the Holy Family School for the entertainment of the 
 orphans. Mother Mary Joseph and one of her assistants 
 then took their places by a table and the children present 
 passed their little donations, and deposited their little 
 bundles of clothing on the tables. There were several 
 grown persons present also, encouraging the little ones by 
 word and example. When this part of the program was 
 completed, which of course was an important part, the 
 orphans were conducted to the smaller hall of the school, 
 where they found an abundance of victuals and two pretty 
 Christmas trees. As soon as they were seated, the young 
 lady teachers of the school supplied them with all they 
 desired, until there was no place left for a piece of cake 
 or candy. 
 
 The children's gifts were largely their penny bank 
 savings of the year, in some cases amounting to three 
 hundred pennies, a substantial sum for a child at that 
 
160 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 time. The hack drivers and express men of the parish, 
 as their contribution to the cause, brought the orphans 
 to the school and took them home again. There is a 
 healthy naivete about this ceremonious reception of the 
 orphans with bands playing, and the mutual entertain- 
 ment with songs and plays, and the formal presenta- 
 tion of gifts that reminds us of the visit of the Magi 
 to Our Lord. The patronizing note of a self-conscious 
 charity is entirely wanting. It was friends giving to 
 friends on terms of a happy equality. Father Damen 
 used to say that he came to the parish an orphan him- 
 self and, judging from the treatment he received there, 
 he knew he couldn't bring any orphans to a better 
 place. 
 
 A normal outgrowth of the spirit of youth, study 
 and practical piety among the youngsters of the parish 
 was the common love of rollicking fun. It was easy 
 to find companions. The chief asset of the parish was 
 children. They were abroad everywhere and the for- 
 mality of introductions was superfluous, since every- 
 one knew everyone else. Play was a much more spon- 
 taneous thing then than it is in our modern city life, 
 with its congested building, and its sporadic air spaces 
 in the form of playgrounds, where games are strictly 
 officered and timed on a schedule. In the old days, the 
 whole wide prairie was the playground, with mag- 
 nificent distances stretching on every side, and the 
 lure of woods just beyond the horizon, and inland 
 lakes. It was a real, not an artificial outdoors. The 
 schools caught up the atmosphere of living close to 
 nature, and picnics and excursions were frequent, some- 
 times given for special groups, as the band and the 
 acolytes, sometimes for the entire school. Wagon loads 
 of provisions were sent ahead and the happy children 
 followed, accompanied by guides and guardians, who 
 were generally the lay teachers of the Holy Family 
 School. They traveled as far as the old horse cars, or 
 
zA Discovery and Its Results 161 
 
 the train, could carry them and walked the rest of it. 
 And after a day of sunshine and sport of all kinds, 
 came the rare enjoyment of the homeward ride, with 
 choruses singing all the popular songs of the day, 
 'Whish dee a da dee,' 'One More River/ 'Are You 
 There, Jerry Houlihan?' led by the versatile Mr. Car- 
 mody, and reaching the climax of the day at Twelfth 
 Street and Blue Island Avenue, where the band turned 
 out and played 'Garry Owen' and the 'Wearing of the 
 Green/ and the large crowd of picnickers, without a 
 cheer leader, gave three cheers and as many 'tigers' as 
 they liked, all but drowning the music of the band. 
 
 The mention of Jerry Houlihan's name in a song 
 title recalls a humorous situation that existed between 
 him and the boys of the parish. For Jerry was no fic- 
 tion. He was a real person, or, more properly, a per- 
 sonage. He was a police officer of the Twelfth Street 
 station, famous all over the city for his ability to catch 
 thieves, and his Captain's picked man wherever courage 
 and action were required. Jerry was very severe on boys 
 who hung about corners, or gathered in groups which 
 looked to him mysterious. He believed strongly in nip- 
 ping trouble in the bud, and he played no favorites. 
 He would pick up his own son with a crowd of boys 
 and shunt them into the station. No doubt he broke 
 up many a young pirate band and wrecked the best- 
 laid plans of many a carefully arranged fist fight. At 
 any rate, he kept the boys on the run. The present 
 writer, though living at the time in a different part 
 of the city, still remembers with awe the shadow of 
 the mighty name of Jerry Houlihan. The song written 
 about him, and sung everywhere then, was no merely 
 imaginary lyric, although the question in the title 'Are 
 You There, Jerry Houlihan?' needed no answer. Jerry 
 was always and emphatically there. 
 
 Naturally Jerry incurred the enmity of the boys, 
 who could never see a way to get even with him. But 
 
161 ^Arnold Teamen, S.J. 
 
 the band boys found a way. During band practice they 
 learned the tune and one day when Jerry was pacing 
 his beat with all the dignity of the representative of 
 the law, they came down the street in full company, 
 caught up with Jerry, fell into step with him, and, tutti 
 sforzando, broke out into 'Are You There, Jerry Houli- 
 han ?' Jerry was startled and, perhaps for the first time 
 in his life, taken by surprise. Moreover, he was de- 
 fenseless. When the lads got to the last three lines of 
 the chorus, they stopped playing, all but a few for an 
 accompaniment, and sang the words : 
 
 And the boys all cry, 
 'Jerry, are you dry? 
 Are you there, Jerry Houlihan ?' 
 
 And all Jerry could do was to keep stepping ahead till 
 he could disappear around the next corner. The old- 
 timers tell us that whenever after this the band boys 
 saw him, no matter what tune they were playing at 
 the time, they would immediately stop and play 'Jerry 
 Houlihan/ 
 
 Incidents like these allow us to visualize the general 
 spirit of the young life growing and developing all 
 about under the fostering care of Father Damen. It 
 is clear that such characters could never be cut on a 
 single pattern. There was too much about them that 
 was original, individual. They could be led but not 
 easily driven, and they could never be brought up ac- 
 cording to a formula. Direct, personal interest in each 
 was the only method they would respond to, and just 
 this method was the one employed. Even when the rod 
 was used on the intransigents, though apparently a 
 driving force, it was understood finally as a proof, if 
 painful, of this personal interest in getting them to 
 know and to behave. Boys can easily forgive lickings 
 when they know they are fairly deserved. These lads 
 forgave most of theirs. Good at the books, strong in 
 
tA "Discovery cmd Its Results 163 
 
 the faith, kind-hearted, frolic-loving, alert, witty, spiced 
 with mischief, imaginative, fearless and moving al- 
 ways with mercurial speed, they were an ideal com- 
 munity to attract the skillful trainer of youth and to 
 arouse him to his best efforts to bring so promising a 
 sowing to its harvest. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 FOUNDING A COLLEGE 
 
 DURING the ten years Father Damen had spent in 
 building his church and schools and in organizing 
 the parish, he had never forgotten what he had said at 
 the beginning of the work, that he would one day 
 reach out further and complete his educational pro- 
 gram by founding a college. 
 
 As soon as the parish was fairly under way, he rep- 
 resented the prospect to his superiors in St. Louis, and 
 in 1862 the board of consultors at Provincial head- 
 quarters decided that 'there ought to be a college in 
 that great city.* By 1866 Damen's preliminary prepa- 
 rations were made and he informed the superiors that 
 he was ready to begin the building. His Provincial con- 
 sented to this, provided the opinion of the General 
 was favorable. At the same time he laid down another 
 condition, namely, that no extraordinary drive for 
 funds should be attempted by Father Damen. 
 
 Advices from the consultors in Chicago delayed the 
 work, however. They could not agree that the time was 
 ripe for opening a college in Chicago, and Father 
 Coosemans, the Provincial, declined to approve the 
 starting of the college at this time. 
 
 During the next year, 1867, Father Coosemans was 
 summoned to Rome on business, leaving his assistant, 
 Father Keller, in temporary charge of the Province. 
 Damen saw in Father Keller an aggressive spirit like 
 his own, and once more he vigorously pushed the idea 
 of beginning the college at once. He invited Father 
 Keller to come to Chicago, to observe and study exist- 
 
 164 
 
Founding a Qollege 165 
 
 ing conditions at first hand. Father Keller accordingly 
 came to Chicago, made a careful survey of the situa- 
 tion, agreed that Damen was safe in proceeding and 
 authorized him to go ahead, at the same time writing 
 to the General and explaining how they could meet 
 the cost of building without any danger. The college 
 would be built part at a time, as finances permitted 
 and the number of students demanded. 
 
 'I went to Chicago myself/ continues Father Keller, 
 'to urge on the undertaking, and I marveled at the 
 achievements of our Fathers in that great city ; a splen- 
 did house of worship, such as one would scarcely 
 expect in America; a parochial school with sixteen 
 hundred boys; schools for girls, one registering four 
 hundred, another nearly that, a third, three hundred, 
 this last a free school conducted by the nuns. The col- 
 lege is the only thing lacking and this will shortly be 
 supplied.' 
 
 When Father Coosemans returned from Europe he 
 found the walls of St. Ignatius College already above 
 ground. 
 
 St. Ignatius was not the first Catholic college in 
 Chicago. Twenty-five years before, Bishop Quarter, 
 foreseeing, as Damen did, the future greatness of the 
 city, founded the University of St. Mary of the Lake, 
 for college students and seminarians. While this was a 
 move in the right direction, after ten years of effort 
 it proved to be premature. Catholic finances could not 
 then bear the burden. The seed planted by Bishop Quar- 
 ter did not die, however. Sixty years later, and almost 
 over night, we may say, it came to its full growth in 
 the large Quigley Preparatory Seminary, with nine 
 hundred students, and in the new St. Mary of the Lake 
 at Mundelein, with four hundred in its divinity school. 
 
 When Damen came on the scene things had changed. 
 The immense growth of Chicago had made it con- 
 scious of its importance and, while still rapidly ex- 
 
1 66 Jtrnoli T)amen> S.J. 
 
 panding, it could now afford a breathing spell wherein 
 to consider the higher matter of education. A vastly 
 greater number of Catholics, too, had made Chicago 
 their home, and they had begun to think of how they 
 could give their children the educational opportunities 
 of which themselves had been deprived. 
 
 Even with these advantages it is interesting to ob- 
 serve how cautiously Damen proceeded toward his goal 
 of a college for the Catholics of Chicago. All his move- 
 ments showed a practical sequence. His church came 
 first as the hub of the work, to sustain the faith vitally 
 among his people. Then his primary schools to ground 
 the young generation in their Catholic faith and to give 
 them a thorough elementary training such as would 
 lead them to desire more education. After ten years of 
 this leavening process, he judged the time opportune 
 for the next step, his high school for boys and his 
 college. 
 
 With his usual business perspicacity, he had prepared 
 for the financial side of the undertaking, and through 
 those ten years he kept quietly preparing for this ex- 
 penditure. When the college was completed, the pa- 
 rishioners were surprised, not that Damen had put up 
 another great building — for by this time they had come 
 to believe that was a habit he had — but that their own 
 purses had been touched so lightly in the process. Ap- 
 parently he had got the money for St. Ignatius College 
 out of the air. He had obeyed his Provincial's injunc- 
 tion not to put on a drive, and yet he had somehow 
 got the money. How had he done it ? 
 
 From the first, Damen had made up his mind that 
 the parish should not be asked to assume the entire 
 money burden of building the college. Because he con- 
 sidered this undertaking, not as parochial, but as a 
 movement of importance to the entire city. He looked 
 beyond the city, too, and forward to the time, which 
 has come today, when its influence would be felt in a 
 
Foimding a Qollege 167 
 
 far wider circle and would draw students from all 
 points of the country. He felt, therefore, and justly, 
 that all this outer territory should invest in its own 
 future and do its part in the foundation of the col- 
 lege. The parish would contribute its share, but would 
 not be asked to shoulder a debt that ought to be sup- 
 ported pro rata by others. 
 
 He decided therefore to appeal abroad for funds. 
 And he did this successfully through his great popu- 
 larity on the missions. We recall that after the first 
 early years of the parish, Damen began frequently to 
 give missions throughout the country. After he had 
 things moving smoothly at home, he secured a capable 
 substitute to carry on its routine work along definite 
 lines, and he himself, sometimes alone, sometimes 
 with a companion, went forth to give missions 
 from one end of the country to the other. His great 
 work in Chicago had already become known every- 
 where, and his extraordinary power as a preacher of 
 missions soon made his name a household word in 
 every Catholic locality he visited. People took a per- 
 sonal interest in the man and his work, and Damen 
 was not the man to allow anyone, from San Francisco 
 to New York, to lose that interest. He kept them in 
 touch with what he was doing, confided to them his 
 plans and got them to realize and sympathize with his 
 difficulties. As a consequence, generous Catholics on all 
 sides were glad to help him, and from the donations 
 he thus received through ten years, he found himself 
 able to purchase the site and to lay the foundations of 
 the college, entirely unencumbered by debt. 
 
 So far all was well. But here his cash resources gave 
 out and he was once more facing the problem of bor- 
 rowing. He was now, indeed, in a much better position 
 for this than ten years back. He had valuable col- 
 lateral to offer in the parish property, which had in- 
 creased greatly in value. However, it would take a 
 
1 68 ^Arnold Ttamen, S.J. 
 
 hundred thousand dollars to finish the college, a very 
 large sum for that time. Money was dear after the 
 Civil War and the legal rates of interest on loans 
 ranged from ten to twelve per cent. This would mean at 
 least ten thousand dollars yearly to be raised by the 
 parish, and Damen was resolved not to go to the parish 
 except as the last resort. His solution was simple though 
 ingenious. He would borrow the money in Europe, 
 where he could obtain it cheap. 
 
 Father Keller strongly urged the General to allow 
 Damen to arrange this loan : 
 
 I see nothing of greater utility [he wrote to Father 
 Beckx], and therefore I urge the building of this college. 
 The hope of the Province almost depends on it. For this 
 college will be the nursery of vocations. From it the other 
 colleges, the novitiate, the missions, will derive power for 
 promoting the glory of God. 
 
 Father Coosemans, who at first had opposed the 
 project as untimely, now joins Father Keller in advis- 
 ing it. His letter makes pleasant reading, as showing 
 how undisturbed he was personally at Father Keller's 
 reversal of his first decision during his absence. He 
 reviews the somewhat zigzag course Damen was com- 
 pelled to follow in order to push the plan ahead. 
 
 Conditions for beginning a college at Chicago [Father 
 Coosemans writes] were very favorable in 1866. The 
 Bishop had then given permission. The affair was re- 
 ferred to your Paternity who agreed and authorized me 
 to give Father Damen approval and permission. I thought 
 with the Chicago consultors that the opportune moment 
 had not arrived. During my absence in Rome, the work 
 was taken in hand with the approval and, from what they 
 tell me, at the instance of Father Keller, who was acting 
 as Vice- Provincial. Father Damen had proposed at first 
 to begin by building only one wing, but Father Keller 
 wished them to build on a larger plan, and to begin with 
 the main section. This entailed a much heavier outlay than 
 
Founding a Qollege 169 
 
 Father Damen had anticipated and made it necessary for 
 him to borrow considerable sums. If I had listened to the 
 advice of Father O'Neil, I would have changed the plans 
 or have work on the building stopped. But after receiving 
 assurances from Father Damen that he saw his way out of 
 the affair with the money they were expecting to obtain 
 from Europe, I gave him permission to go on, the more 
 so as the first story was already built. 
 
 I have no doubt that with the help of Heaven both in- 
 terest and capital will be paid off in due season, provided 
 Father Damen be not taken away. 
 
 It is not surprising that conservative minds would be 
 frightened at the debt, huge for that day, that Damen 
 was contracting. But they failed to balance against 
 it his business acumen, his colossal energy and his 
 popularity. They did not know nor appreciate Chicago. 
 Everyone who at all knew Chicago realized that no 
 one held the confidence of the Chicago people as Damen 
 did. Ten years before, Father De Smet, writing to 
 the General, said: 
 
 Father Damen has engaged to pay the Vice-Province 
 out of the revenues of his church, fifteen hundred dollars 
 annually in interest for the support of the Scholastics. 
 With another Superior in Chicago I am afraid this en- 
 gagement would be difficult to keep. 
 
 Acting upon the representations of Fathers Coose- 
 mans and Keller, the General authorized Damen to 
 proceed with his negotiations for a loan. 
 
 One of his companions on the missions was Father 
 Van Goch, like Damen, a Hollander, whose brother 
 was a wealthy business man in Holland. Father Damen 
 requested Father Van Goch to write to his brother to 
 ask if he would supply them with the necessary money 
 at a moderate interest. The reply was that it could be 
 done, but only on condition that they come to Holland 
 for a personal conference. The correspondence between 
 
170 ^Arnold T)amen> SJ. 
 
 the brothers finally resulted in the following letter from 
 Damen to the Jesuit General : 
 
 Chicago, February 10, 1868. 
 Very Reverend dear Father General: 
 
 Since my last letter to your Paternity I have the hap- 
 piness to assure you that the good God continues to bless 
 our efforts in Chicago, and likewise our work on the 
 missions. In Chicago there are five Fathers for the church 
 who are constantly occupied. They heard seventy thou- 
 sand Confessions the past year. We have from fifty to 
 sixty thousand Communions a year and at least a hundred 
 conversions from Protestantism to our holy religion. 
 There is great piety in our church, which, large as it is, is 
 nevertheless too small for all who wish to assist at divine 
 services and to hear the sermons. Three thousand children 
 are now in our schools, 1,600 boys and 1,400 girls. . . . 
 
 We have begun to build a college, which we intend to be 
 a very large structure. The foundations were laid last 
 fall. This is now a necessity for the youth of Chicago. 
 Reverend Father Provincial has given me permission to 
 borrow one hundred thousand dollars to finish the college. 
 
 Now, to borrow the money in this country I shall be 
 obliged to pay ten per cent and perhaps more. This inter- 
 est is too much and I am not in favor of paying so much. 
 Therefore we have written to Holland to Mr. Van Goch, 
 a very rich man, the brother of Father Van Goch, my 
 companion on the missions. He has replied that if we 
 come to Holland and give him the necessary security, he 
 will give us all the money we need to finish the college, 
 at four per cent. That will save us six thousand dollars 
 a year, and this saving, put out at interest here, will in 
 ten years, with added interest, enable us to save more 
 than a hundred thousand dollars. Thus in ten years we 
 shall have paid all the debt of the college. This we can 
 undertake without any difficulty or danger. The revenues 
 of our Chicago house are at least thirty thousand dollars 
 a year, of which we can save fifteen thousand dollars, 
 surely. Our other Fathers say twenty thousand, but I 
 shall put it at fifteen thousand. Consequently in six or 
 
Founding a C°^ e i e I 7 I 
 
 seven years we shall be able to pay all the debt, even with- 
 out counting on any revenue from the college. 
 
 But for this we shall require the permission of your 
 Reverence to go to Holland, myself and Father Van 
 Goch. All our traveling expenses will be paid by the 
 brother of Father Van Goch, who has already sent us a 
 bank draft for this purpose. We shall be absent only three 
 months of the summer, during which time we ordinarily 
 give no missions here, owing to the heat. So nothing 
 suffers in that way. I am not asking for this journey for 
 the pleasure of it, although it is true that my relatives 
 wish very much to see me once more in this world. This, 
 however, I do not consider a sufficient motive for grant- 
 ing the request. But the welfare of our work here seems 
 to demand it, and on that account I hope your Paternity 
 will grant it. . . . 
 
 Commending myself to your Holy Sacrifices and pray- 
 ers, I am, my very Reverend dear Father, 
 
 Your most obedient son in Jesus Christ, 
 
 A. Damen, S. J. 
 
 Damen received a favorable answer to his request, 
 and wrote to Father Beckx a letter from Queenstown, 
 the first stop on the way to his destination : 
 
 Queenstown, Ireland, 
 
 June 25, 1868. 
 Very Reverend dear Father General: 
 
 We left New York on the 13th of this month and made 
 a very favorable passage. Thanks to God, we had the great 
 privilege of celebrating Mass every day of our voyage, 
 I and my companion, Father Van Goch. We also were 
 able to make all the spiritual exercises every day. We 
 preached the word of God to poor sinners who were on 
 the boat, heard Confessions and administered Holy Com- 
 munion during the voyage, with the result that those who 
 left America as sinners, and away from their religious 
 duties ten and fifteen years, arrived in Europe just men, 
 determined to live as Christians in the future. May God 
 and the holy Virgin Mary help them to persevere to the 
 end. 
 
172 ^Arnold 1)amen y SJ. 
 
 Almost all the Catholics received Communion. Among 
 the Protestants we often spoke on religion and I believe 
 we impressed them. I regret very much that we did not 
 bring some books explaining the faith to give to these, 
 for they were very friendly, sought our company and 
 wanted to talk with us on the Catholic religion, and on 
 the Jesuits. I am persuaded that the reading of some good 
 books would have ended the matter and that we would 
 have had the happiness of bringing some of them into 
 the Church. It is something we shall try to correct on our 
 return. 
 
 Every day at six in the evening we recited the Rosary 
 of the Blessed Virgin in public. Nearly all the Catholics 
 were present, and the passengers said they had never seen 
 a crowd so well ordered and devout. As a matter of fact, 
 they liked to attend Mass so well that they had to be 
 told not to try to come to two Masses, because the room 
 was not large enough to hold them all at one time. A 
 Spanish lady from South America was the only one who 
 was allowed to attend the two Masses, because I was not 
 able to explain to her why it was not desired. 
 
 The letter goes on to ask the General to allow him 
 to visit Rome before his return to the United States. 
 One of the reasons he gives is 'that I desire very much 
 to speak to your Paternity in the interests of the mis- 
 sions in America. For ten years I have been superior 
 of the missions in the United States. To tell the truth, 
 it is I who began the missions, or the Spiritual Exer- 
 cises for the people. Eleven years ago the Fathers 
 rarely gave the Exercises or a mission. On that mat- 
 ter I desire to receive some instructions. I have several 
 important questions to be solved. I wish to be sure that 
 I may act always according to the spirit of the So- 
 ciety. . . . Permit me to add another reason, though 
 but a personal one. All my life I have wished to visit 
 the tombs of the holy Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, 
 as well as to obtain the blessing of the Holy Father. 
 
Founding a Qollege 173 
 
 the successor and representative of Our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ/ 
 
 Father Beckx invited Father Damen to visit him in 
 Rome after the business affairs in Holland were com- 
 pleted. Damen conferred with the General on the 
 missions, had an audience with the Holy Father, re- 
 ceived a special blessing for himself and for the people 
 of his parish and returned home by way of Ireland, in 
 order, as he said, to make a pilgrimage to the birth- 
 place of so many of his beloved flock and to derive 
 inspiration from the land so famous for its devotion 
 to the faith. Upon his arrival home he was welcomed 
 with a great parish reception. He responded by telling 
 the people all the story of his journey, dwelling on 
 what he had seen in Ireland and praising particularly 
 its religious fervor and its deep faith, which he hoped 
 would be reproduced in the Holy Family parish. 
 
 With this sound financial beginning, St. Ignatius 
 College was built without any undue strain upon the 
 parish. In fact, as things turned out, it was Damen 
 himself who repaid the whole amount both principal 
 and interest, he had borrowed in Holland. He did this 
 from the contributions he received through several 
 years from Catholics whom he interested in the college 
 while he went about on his missions. Among the still 
 surviving parishioners of that day, there are those 
 who remember him saying that none of the parish 
 money was ever invested in the college. 
 
 Up to this time, the Catholics of Chicago who 
 wished a higher education for their sons, were com- 
 pelled to send them away from home. Now they took 
 advantage of the home school. Others who could not 
 afford a boarding school for their boys were here 
 offered the opportunity of giving them a college course 
 at moderate expense. The way was opened to the pro- 
 fessions and many boys eagerly seized the chance. The 
 infant college grew and throve steadily until the pres- 
 
174 ^Arnold T>amen y S.J. 
 
 ent day, when it numbers more than six thousand stu- 
 dents in all departments. Vocations to the priesthood 
 ripened fast. Even before the college opened, vocations 
 had begun to appear through the parish schools. Father 
 James O'Meara, now more than sixty years a Jesuit, 
 who remembers those days well, writes as follows : 
 
 In the year when St. Ignatius College was opened, I 
 found four bright boys of Father Damen's first school 
 children entering the Novitiate at Florissant after their 
 classics at St. Louis University. I had observed them 
 at the University while I was studying philosophy. They 
 were Patrick Murphy, John Kennedy, Michael Cushing 
 and Thomas Fitzgerald, who was our Father Provincial 
 from 1894 to 1899. As these are all dead, haec olim 
 meminisse juvabit. 
 
 Those were the first early fruits. But that parish con- 
 tinued to be a nursery for vocations. Who can count 
 the priests and religious whose vocations were fostered 
 during the last sixty years ? 
 
 Father O'Meara's question may be approximately 
 answered from statistics given in the History of the 
 Holy Family Parish, published in 1923. Up to that 
 time two hundred and thirty-five priests and clerical 
 students were counted as claiming St. Ignatius Col- 
 lege for their Alma Mater. If we add these to the 
 number previously given for members of Religious 
 Communities of women, we have the total of six hun- 
 dred and forty-nine vocations, or an average of more 
 than ten vocations a year for sixty years. We do not 
 know of any parish in the history of the Church that 
 excels this. And it all began with one man in a little 
 wooden church out on a windswept prairie. 
 
 In the midst of the preliminaries for the founding 
 of St. Ignatius College, there was serious danger for 
 a time that Father Damen would be taken away from 
 it. The long and hopeless illness of Bishop Duggan 
 during a critical period of Chicago's religious growth 
 
Founding a C°^ e Z e I 75 
 
 had made it imperative to choose a successor. Damen's 
 feat of building up the west side of Chicago within 
 a dozen years and his consequent intimate knowledge 
 of Church conditions in Chicago pointed him out as 
 the man. He was very popular, too, with the clergy 
 of the city and a large number of them considered 
 him the fittest person to meet the situation. Once be- 
 fore in St. Louis, in 1855, his name had been consid- 
 ered as Bishop of that city. He had escaped the burden 
 then. But in 1869, it seemed very probable that in spite 
 of himself he would be appointed Bishop of Chicago. 
 
 Father Coosemans, the Provincial, became alarmed 
 at the possibility. His only hope of carrying the in- 
 cipient college through safely was, as he said in the 
 letter above quoted, 'provided Father Damen be not 
 taken away.' He was then fearing the change, and he 
 wrote to the General to inform him of the gravity of 
 the situation. To withdraw Damen at that juncture 
 would mean for the college complete collapse. There 
 was no one available to take his place. It was largely 
 through Damen's own efforts that the change did not 
 occur. 
 
 Before concluding this summary of the varied activi- 
 ties of Father Damen, we must mention one other im- 
 portant work of his. Very soon after his coming to 
 Chicago he introduced to the parish and to the city, 
 the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, a Congregation 
 of religious women whose special vocation it is to sup- 
 ply in emergencies that cannot be taken care of by 
 other Religious. They do not specialize in any one line 
 of exterior work, but hold themselves ready to help 
 in any field where they may be needed. This establish- 
 ment was a particularly wise move of Damen's at the 
 time, since with the rapidity of parish growth there 
 were emergencies everywhere, and constant sudden calls 
 for teaching or for nursing the sick or for aiding the 
 
176 ^Arnold T>amen 7 SJ. 
 
 poor. The Daughters of the Heart of Mary built in 
 the parish a home for working girls, and later took 
 up the education of the deaf and dumb. Their work is 
 essentially quiet, unobtrusive, but is still going on 
 with sustained spiritual power. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE CHICAGO FIRE AND AFTER 
 
 IN OCTOBER, 1871, just when Chicago had begun 
 to feel the thrill of a settled and growing prosperity, 
 came the staggering blow of the great fire. Within 
 three days the city was seemingly wiped off the map. 
 A writer in the Woodstock Letters, under date of No- 
 vember 12, 1 87 1, begins as follows: 
 
 Chicago is proud Chicago no longer. The fire king has 
 robbed her, not only of her pride and wealth, her pomp 
 and luxury, but also of many of her sanctuaries and 
 shrines, of her monuments of Christian charity and devo- 
 tion. The cathedral and the episcopal residences, churches 
 and chapels, schools and academies, monasteries and con- 
 vents, orphanages and asylums of innocence and peni- 
 tence, have been buried in one promiscuous grave. 
 
 The fire broke out just beyond the boundaries of the 
 Holy Family parish and was accompanied by a high 
 and veering wind, that later turned into a fearful gale. 
 Three months of continued drought had preceded, and 
 the wooden houses of which the city was principally 
 built were like tinder in the flames. The speed of the 
 fire can be judged by the fact that within six hours it 
 had traveled in an air line more than two miles. 
 At first there appeared to be no immediate danger for 
 the church and parish. But the shifting wind turned 
 and drove the flames directly from the east right down 
 on the Holy Family district. There seemed to be no 
 escape. Just as the fire reached the boundary line of the 
 parish there came a change. 'The flames,' the same 
 writer tells us, 'were sweeping like a torrent along the 
 
 177 
 
178 ^Arnold Teamen, SJ. 
 
 boundary line of the parish without ever daring for an 
 instant to cross, or to trespass on what looked like con- 
 secrated ground. Then there came a turn. Had it been 
 toward the west nothing could have saved us. For- 
 tunately for us, it was toward the east. The fate that 
 had been hovering around our flock was averted.' 
 
 From that moment the fire drove east and north, 
 away from the parish. The Holy Family parish was 
 saved. When they saw themselves out of danger they 
 turned at once to help those about them in distress. 
 The college was one of the first places offered to the 
 Relief Committee for the storage and distribution of 
 supplies, which poured in from all parts of the coun- 
 try. From the variety and quantity of the articles 
 stored away on the ground floor, and the number of 
 trucks unloading at the sidewalks, a stranger passing 
 by would have thought that the building had been sud- 
 denly turned into a vast commission warehouse. The 
 Benedictines, and the orphans of the Sisters of St. 
 Joseph found shelter in the classrooms of the college. 
 The Sisters themselves were cared for by the nuns of 
 the parish. Thousands of the destitute and hungry gath- 
 ered around the doors to receive provisions and cloth- 
 ing. Tn addition to this,' says the writer of this account, 
 'we enjoy the satisfaction of giving hospitality to our 
 venerable Bishop, who has permanently taken up his 
 abode with us. He has a suite of rooms adjoining the 
 parlor, goes to meals with the Community and some- 
 times attends our recreations.' 
 
 It will be asked, where was Father Damen and what 
 was his share in aid of the disaster ? The following au- 
 thentic account, written by Mr. John Kelly in the New 
 World, October, 1921, will perhaps help to explain the 
 Providence that shielded the parish from destruction: 
 
 For fifty years seven lights have burned day and night 
 in front of a statue of the Blessed Virgin in the Holy 
 
The Qhtcago Fire and <A]ter 179 
 
 Family Church. These lights commemorate the escape 
 of the edifice from destruction in the fire of 1871. 
 
 Jefferson and Dekoven Streets, the starting point of 
 the fire, were just across the boundary lines of the parish. 
 With a strong wind blowing from the east, it looked for a 
 time as if nothing could stop the flames from sweeping 
 the entire west side of the city. 
 
 It is a matter of history that the wind veered and drove 
 the fire eastward across the river, thence to the lake, and 
 north for a distance of more than three miles. 
 
 Father Arnold Damen was holding a mission in Brook- 
 lyn at the time. His assistant telegraphed him that there 
 was grave danger of his beloved church being destroyed. 
 The message was handed to Father Damen in the confes- 
 sional at St. Patrick's Church. 
 
 Father Damen went to the altar and remained there 
 alone the greater part of the night, praying for the safety 
 of his church and the homes of his parishioners. For 
 many years he had struggled to pay off the debt on the 
 church, often making long journeys to procure funds for 
 that purpose. 
 
 With tears streaming down his cheeks, he made a vow 
 that if his petition were answered he would, for all time, 
 keep seven lights burning in front of the statue of Our 
 Lady of Perpetual Help. 
 
 A curious fact is that not one of the parishioners of 
 the Holy Family Church lost his home through the fire, 
 although the prairie was dotted with thousands of frame 
 cottages. Iron, brick and stone structures melted like snow 
 before the flames, but the wooden dwellings were un- 
 scathed by the providential shift in the wind. 
 
 Taking the first train for Chicago, Father Damen ar- 
 rived to find the main part of the city in ashes. Gathering 
 his flock about him, he held a Mass of thanksgiving, and 
 in a voice often choked with sobs, told his hearers of the 
 vow he made. 
 
 'My vow must be kept/ he said 'so long as this church 
 stands. Let those seven lights be lighted today in front of 
 the Blessed Virgin's statue, and I charge you, my children, 
 to keep them burning until time has erased this church 
 of God. To my successors I bequeath this vow as a 
 
180 ^Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 legacy, and you, my beloved flock, see to it that my wishes 
 are respected/ 
 
 The statue stands in an obscure corner of the old edi- 
 fice, and before it is a triangular shaped candelabrum. For 
 several years candles were burned, but it was such a task 
 to keep them lighted during the night that gas jets in the 
 form of candlesticks were substituted. 
 
 These lights have been kept burning to the present 
 day. 
 
 As things turned out, the Chicago fire, instead of 
 being a disaster to the city, proved its greatest busi- 
 ness asset. The smoke had hardly cleared away when 
 the citizens began on another Chicago, better in every 
 way than the one they had just lost. A letter of Father 
 Coppens to the Woodstock Letters, dated March 28, 
 1873, a year and a half after the fire, begins thus : 
 
 On Tuesday, the 18th, I reached Chicago by the Illinois 
 Central, whose depot is on the lake, in the heart of the 
 lately burned district. I was rather surprised not to see 
 around me that bleak charred plain, of which so much 
 was said and written after last year's terrible conflagra- 
 tion. As I walked up State Street, and rode in the street 
 cars along State and Madison Streets, I saw, it is true, 
 some empty spots and remnants of fires; but nearly all 
 the houses had been rebuilt for miles around, and that 
 on a grander scale and in a more elegant style than before. 
 I had heard much of the enterprise of the Chicago people, 
 but of such work as I saw had been done here, I never 
 had any conception. No wonder the inhabitants are said 
 to be getting prouder of their city than ever ! 
 
 This increase of the prosperity of Chicago spread 
 into the Holy Family parish. Business throve there; 
 larger stores came in, better homes were built; the 
 population of Catholics grew very fast. During the 
 fifteen years that followed the fire, the work of Father 
 Darnen was at its peak. Although he kept constantly 
 going out on mission work, he still directed the parish 
 
"The Chicago Fire and zAjter 181 
 
 and found means to meet every advance in its growth. 
 He built most of the great group of schools during 
 this time, as well as the Sacred Heart church and 
 residence. The religious fervor of the people kept pace 
 with this material growth. We quote again from the 
 letter of Father Coppens, giving his impressions of 
 the faith of the people: 
 
 I went to the church to offer up the Holy Sacrifice of 
 the Mass. 
 
 Though it was a week day and the morning far ad- 
 vanced, and all the services were over, I found at once a 
 respectable congregation gathered before the altar. On the 
 next day, the feast of St. Joseph, Holy Communions were 
 plentiful, but as I did not then intend to write this ac- 
 count, I did not inquire how many. That night at half 
 past seven o'clock, there was a congregation of probably 
 some fourteen hundred people to hear the praises of St. 
 Joseph and to receive the Benediction of the Blessed 
 Sacrament. On Friday night a much larger congregation 
 still, assisted at the Way of the Cross. These are nearly 
 all working people, who after the fatigue of a busy day 
 (such as business is in Chicago, where every vehicle and 
 every pedestrian hurries along as if the city were still on 
 fire) can be gathered at any time and to any number for 
 devotional services in their beloved church. In fact, every 
 day had its own edifying sights. . . . 
 
 But it was on Sunday my enthusiasm and admiration 
 reached its height. I will not speak of the congregation 
 crowding the church every hour of the morning, but shall 
 only mention what is peculiar. At seven o'clock in the 
 morning the drum and fife were heard and a band of 
 young musicians were seen marching from the school 
 house to the church, at the head of a procession of some 
 three hundred boys. The drums were deposited near the 
 side altar and all the boys received Holy Communion. 
 We were three priests distributing Holy Communion at 
 that Mass and I was tired when it was over. The church 
 was crowded and at the same time another congregation 
 was hearing Mass in the basement. Every Sunday has 
 
1 82 cArnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 some Sodality or other at Communion. That of the mar- 
 ried men counts five hundred members, that of the women 
 three hundred; there is one of the young men lately 
 started and counting already about one hundred and fifty, 
 another of young ladies with three hundred. On the Sun- 
 day of my visit, twelve hundred Sacred Hosts were dis- 
 tributed though there had been many Communions on St. 
 Patrick's and St. Joseph's days during the foregoing week. 
 At nine o'clock I saw about eight hundred girls at Mass 
 in the convent of the Sisters of Charity, who have the 
 parish schools. I saw thirteen hundred boys at Mass and 
 listened to the instruction given them. It was an explana- 
 tion of the catechism well adapted to their youthful minds. 
 In the afternoon there were the various Sunday schools. 
 To attract pupils to these, there are three papers pub- 
 lished by the Sunday School Board, two monthlies and 
 one bi-monthly, so that every Sunday a paper is given 
 gratis to all who come in time. That day twenty-six hun- 
 dred papers were thus given out. ... 
 
 All these gratifying works of salvation are of course 
 performed by many hands. But there is one man, who has 
 been constantly the soul and heart of this vigorous body 
 of laborers, whose name is written in the hearts, not only 
 of all his thousands of parishioners, but of many more 
 thousands of the faithful scattered over this wide country. 
 I need not add that it is likewise written in the hearts of 
 his loving brethren. 
 
 Between Damen's arrival on the blank prairie and 
 the writing of this letter, only fifteen years had inter- 
 vened. Like John the Baptist, he had gone into the 
 desert and the people had followed him. 
 
 Church and school routine were not his sole depend- 
 ence in keeping the people together. He got up parish 
 entertainments for social meetings in the winter months 
 and outings for them in the summer. His method of as- 
 sembling a crowd for an outing was unique. First he 
 announced a picnic for a certain day. When the day 
 came, he started out from the church on foot, leading 
 a group carrying flags and banners, and accompanied 
 
The Qhicago Fire and J[jter 183 
 
 by a band. They marched east on Polk or Taylor Streets 
 gathering recruits from all sides as they went. Music 
 playing and flags flying, they arrived, a great parade, 
 at the depot, boarded a special train for a favorite 
 lakeside or woodland spot, and spent the whole day in 
 open-air sports and amusements. On other occasions 
 the journey was a hike down Canal or Jefferson Streets 
 and thence to O'Neil's Woods, just north of the river 
 at Halstead Street. Damen mingled with them as one 
 of themselves, and thus came into familiar touch with 
 every soul in the parish. People from different sections 
 of the parish, too, learned to know one another inti- 
 mately, a democracy of interests was established and a 
 corresponding unity of spirit. 
 
 These spontaneous and homely amusements of the 
 early Chicagoans seem as remote from the modern 
 citizen as the tomb of Tutankahmen. The sophisticated 
 city child today would bestow upon them merely a 
 languid glance as upon something quaint, bucolic. Any- 
 one today who would try to carry through a success- 
 ful outing by the simple process of walking down the 
 street and waving a few flags, would be halted by the 
 police as a suspicious character. In Damen's day there 
 was real social life in the community. More room for 
 individual play of character, and none of the modern 
 mass formations, promoted artificially. Nothing fas- 
 cinates more than character genuinely revealed, and 
 people who know each other well have little need of 
 built-up entertainment. They find it in one another. 
 Today we pack ourselves silently together into dark- 
 ened halls, paying to get into them, and surrender our- 
 selves without defense to any kind of wearisome 
 pantomime that an utter stranger forces upon us, assur- 
 ing us meanwhile that it is the one thing in our lives that 
 we have always been looking for. The idea is gone 
 that people in everyday life are full of entertaining in- 
 terest, if only we could see them as they are. But, 
 
1 84 ^Arnold T>amen> SJ. 
 
 packed in city crowds, we get out of focus with one 
 another, become remote, self-conscious, suspicious, 
 isolated. We can't see the woods on account of the 
 trees. 
 
 Damen would hardly be happy in such an atmos- 
 phere. His free and open manner, his cheery laughter, 
 mellow humor, his habit of moving in and out every- 
 where and of making himself at home in all places, 
 would likely be sadly bottled up in this condensed age 
 of introspective etiquette, where he would feel like a 
 forest ranger in a period furniture shop. 
 
 But he was very much at home in early Chicago. He 
 was the best-known priest in the city and through his 
 missions was famous throughout the country. Yet, 
 when at home, he did not move outside the boundaries 
 of his parish. But his preaching in the church always 
 drew large crowds from every part of the city. He did 
 intense work in a leisurely manner. There was nothing 
 about him of the external feverishness that deceives so 
 many into thinking they are covering a lot of ground 
 when they are merely hysterically moving up and down 
 in the same spot. There was a serenity about Father 
 Damen that allowed him to take up one duty after 
 another with a steadiness and a lack of friction that 
 left his mind tranquil and always earned him a margin 
 of time for dealing with the unexpected. Emergencies 
 never crowded or interrupted him. They were picked 
 up and solved as he went along. 
 
 Bishop Murphy, of Belize, British Honduras, was 
 an acolyte in those days in the Holy Family Church, 
 and for years served Father Damen' s Mass every day 
 when he was home from the missions. His memories 
 of Damen and his time are very clear. 
 
 As soon as Father Damen returned to the parish [the 
 Bishop tells us] he became immediately an acting pastor, 
 taking up the work tirelessly and putting himself into close 
 touch with every interest of the parish. For a large man 
 
The Qhlcago Fire and Jljter 185 
 
 his movements were very brisk, but smooth and never 
 impulsive. His face wore always a look of innocence and 
 gentleness that might well take away any bitterness from 
 the rebuke or the severe reproof he sometimes had to 
 employ on those who had earned them. Even when he was 
 stern, and he could be stern, he left the impression that 
 back of it lay forgiveness. But through the ordinary duties 
 of the day he radiated benevolence. 
 
 His absence from the parish on his missions proved no 
 detriment to the work at home. The staff of active priests 
 with him — men like Fathers Corbett, Oakley, O'Neil, 
 Lawler, Schultz, Setters — grasped his ideas of organiza- 
 tion perfectly and followed instructions accurately. 
 
 Damen's great zeal for God's glory was always in evi- 
 dence. He was at pains to have the best of everything for 
 the church, fine vestments, artistic statues, handsome 
 paintings. He took delight in the ceremonial of the 
 Church, and aimed at perfection in all its details. He took 
 a pride in the celebration of great festivals, such as Easter 
 and Christmas, and was always at home for them. His 
 heart was in the Holy Family parish. 
 
 His acolytes had to have the best possible of clothing 
 in the way of cassocks, surplices, and general equipment. 
 The liturgies of today would not perhaps approve of the 
 gorgeousness of raiment they displayed, their capes with 
 brilliant stars, birettas, long lace surplices from Belgium 
 and Holland, white satin and silk cassocks for the leading 
 acolytes. But a member of the acolythical society then was 
 an honored person in the parish. 
 
 The public processions of the parish were looked upon 
 by Damen as public acts of faith. They drew crowds from 
 all over the city. The sodalities turned out in all the 
 regalia, with Father Damen at their head, marching under 
 the banner of the Blessed Virgin ; the parish bands with 
 music, and the cadets with their splendid drill made of 
 the procession a thing of beauty. 
 
 In dealing with his people he had a sweet, familiar way 
 with him that endeared him to the very young and to all 
 the grown-ups. These were infallibly attached to him by 
 strong affection and admiration. There was one group, 
 however, that he did not seem to reach, and they were 
 
1 86 ^Arnold Darnell^ SJ. 
 
 the boys in their early teens. They respected him, but they 
 feared him. They thought he domineered them. He de- 
 manded obedience from them on the jump. The grounds 
 about the college attracted them and the nooks and angles 
 of the buildings were a tempting setting for their noisy 
 games. Damen guarded the church and surrounding prop- 
 erty like a czar. What the boys looked on as a lively frolic, 
 he called trespassing. And no doubt he was right. But 
 whenever he could catch up with any of them, they could 
 expect a clout or two as a reminder. They didn't like this, 
 naturally. It didn't seem at all like Father Damen's way 
 with all the rest of the people, and they felt disgraced. 
 
 Another thing the boys disliked — and I do not recall 
 anyone else noticing it — was Damen's attempts to mimic 
 the Irish brogue, especially of the poor Irish men or 
 Irish women. As a matter of fact he could not get the 
 Irish brogue well at all, which made the matter even 
 worse. Damen probably intended to be merely good- 
 humored, but the boys thought him prejudiced against the 
 Irish, especially as he never attempted any other dialect. 
 Their judgment was of course wrong, but they did receive 
 the wrong impression. 
 
 Later years showed these same boys how utterly mis- 
 taken they were, and what a snap judgment they had 
 made. They learned that back of this severity lay a deep 
 and kindly interest in many of the very boys he appeared 
 'down on.' For they discovered that unawares to them- 
 selves at the time, he was keeping them at school, defray- 
 ing the expenses of their tuition and books, and, in some 
 cases even of their clothing, their parents being unable to 
 provide these. Afterward these boys achieved distinction 
 in life, became professional men, or mounted high in the 
 business world, and found out, but not from Damen, that 
 he it was who had seen them through. 
 
 Damen's failure to solve the character of the young 
 Chicago boy and to win his sympathy, may be under- 
 stood, we think, from the fact that he had never before 
 met anything like the Chicago boy. Chicago was mov- 
 ing fast, but these boys went even faster. The world 
 
The Qhicago Fire and \Ajter 187 
 
 seemed spread out around them on all sides and they 
 were trying to cover all of it at once. The young 
 Dutch boy did not develop in this fashion. The mer- 
 cury in his temperament was traditionally held much 
 nearer the freezing point. He was sternly kept in his 
 place, and that place was definitely limited. He was told 
 to be seen and not heard. The Chicago lad could easily 
 be heard, but it took an expert to see him. This reverse 
 of early home experiences no doubt puzzled Damen, and 
 reduced him to the last extremity, generally a losing one 
 with boys of that age, of resorting to corporal punish- 
 ment. It may well be, too, that olden days in the class- 
 room at St. Louis were still stalking in his memory. He 
 may have been as much afraid of the boys as they were 
 of him. In spite of being baffled by them, we see that he 
 nevertheless liked them, looked ahead for them and 
 provided for their future. 
 
 This is perhaps the only instance where Damen failed 
 in his immediate dealing with character. He had an 
 instinct in all other situations, serious or comic, for 
 taking people right. 
 
 One May day, two young ladies of the parish were 
 in the church arranging the May altar. It was the noon 
 hour. Nobody was in the church and the doors were 
 locked during the dinner hour of the pastors. With no 
 interruption anticipated, the two became fascinated by 
 the idea of giving a little mission of their own in imi- 
 tation of Father Damen. Miss Elizabeth X., as the 
 first speaker, mounted the pulpit, and getting as close 
 as she could to a deep barytone, shouted at the top of 
 her voice, 'Hell fire ! If you don't mend your ways, my 
 young man, you will go on to hell. And deep down 
 into hell you shall go.' As the echoes were still ringing 
 through the church, she heard a little cough from a 
 shadowy corner and, peering down, she discovered with 
 alarm Father Damen rising from where he was saying 
 some prayers. 
 
1 88 ^Arnold T)amen y S.J. 
 
 Well, Lizzie/ said he with a smile, 'you would make 
 a splendid missioner.' 
 
 Miss Elizabeth, now a nun, recalls that Father 
 Damen enjoyed the incident decidedly more than 
 she did. 
 
 All through his work in the parish, Damen made a 
 great deal of going about on foot, meeting his people 
 informally and joining in with whatever occupation or 
 amusement they happened to be engaged in. One eve- 
 ning he was passing by a playground where a group of 
 four young men, athletes, were competing before a 
 crowd at putting the stone, the predecessor of our mod- 
 ern athletic game of putting the shot. These four were 
 the best in the parish at this pastime, and as Father 
 Damen came by they challenged him playfully, and at 
 the same time confidently, to better their marks. Damen 
 smilingly stepped over to where they were gathered 
 and taking off his stovepipe hat, handed it to one of 
 the bystanders, seized the heavy stone, poised, and 
 hurled it with a mighty Vergilian heave far beyond 
 the farthest mark made by the contestants. A gasp of 
 applause went up from the onlookers. Damen genially 
 acknowledged the compliment and passed on, with the 
 crowd looking after him in wonderment. 
 
 On another occasion, after a day's hard work, Da- 
 men was settled in his room toward nightfall calmly 
 smoking a Turkish pipe he had just received as a gift, 
 when there came a sudden call that a wild man over 
 near Polk and Aberdeen Streets was murdering his 
 family. Without a moment's delay Damen sped from 
 the house. Arrived at the scene, he found a crowd 
 gathered around the edges of an open yard, and in the 
 center of the yard, with nobody daring to approach 
 him, a hulking fellow atop of a stack of hay, brandish- 
 ing a huge butcher knife and shouting that he would 
 kill anyone who came near him. He was either intoxi- 
 cated or insane. Without waiting to discover which, 
 
I' he Qhtcago Fire and zAfter 189 
 
 Damen pushed his way through the crowd, walked 
 across the open yard up to the foot of the haystack 
 and in a voice of thunder that could be heard half way 
 across the parish, shouted, 'What are you doing up 
 there? Drop that knife! Come down here!' The man 
 seemed stunned, unnerved. He stared at Damen, 
 dropped the knife in a dazed way, timidly began to 
 clamber down from the stack and stood before him 
 trembling and perfectly tamed. 
 
 Damen was at first surprised at his easy victory. But 
 after the immediate excitement was over, he suddenly 
 realized that it was not alone his stentorian command 
 that had done the job. For he discovered himself wear- 
 ing a bright smoking jacket and a fez cap. The friend 
 who had presented him with the Turkish pipe had also 
 sent a smoking outfit, and Damen had tried on the 
 uniform for the first time that night. When the alarm 
 sounded, he forgot all about his extraordinary make- 
 up. The man on the haystack had doubtless been seeing 
 things, but nothing quite like that, and when the tre- 
 mendous thunder of command came from such an 
 apparition, all power of resistance was shattered. 
 
 The active priest runs the gamut of experiences. He 
 is the rock upon which every troubled wave breaks and 
 comes to rest. There is no forecasting their kind or 
 their number. They range from the simplest doubts to 
 the most complicated difficulties. And moving, as they 
 do, mostly in the territory of the supernatural and the 
 things of the soul, it is not surprising that the priest 
 could tell many things that bring us close to the border 
 of the other world. 
 
 Over the entrance to the sanctuary of the Holy Fam- 
 ily Church may today be seen two statues of acolytes, 
 placed there to commemorate an incident in the life 
 of Father Damen, which has all the marks of a super- 
 natural occurrence. 
 
 Late one stormy night, the doorbell of the pastor's 
 
190 ^Arnold Damen, S.J. 
 
 residence rang. The porter answered the ring and upon 
 opening the door, two boys stepped in and asked for a 
 priest to accompany them on an urgent sick call. The 
 storm was so severe that the porter, thinking to spare 
 the priest after a trying day, asked if it would not be 
 possible to wait until morning. The boys assured him 
 that the woman was in such danger that she could 
 not live through the night. Father Damen was awak- 
 ened by the conversation, and overhearing its drift, 
 would not allow any other priest to be called, but pre- 
 pared at once to accompany the lads himself, and 
 started out with them. The boys led the way for Damen 
 through the storm and the flooded streets until they 
 came to a lonely tumble-down house in a remote part 
 of the parish, where they told him the sick woman 
 would be found in the garret. Father Damen climbed 
 the stairs and found the dying woman lying on a poor 
 bed in a corner of the room. As he entered, the woman 
 looked up in astonishment, but with great joy. Father 
 Damen heard her dying confession, gave her the Last 
 Sacraments and told her that he would have someone 
 to come and care for her immediately. As he was about 
 to leave, the woman said, 
 
 'Father, may I ask who called you to me? I have 
 been very sick and I have wanted the priest, but I had 
 no one to send.' 
 
 Father Damen replied that two young boys had come 
 for him, neighbors, no doubt, he suggested. 
 
 'No, Father,' she replied. 'There is none near and 
 no one knows of my sickness.' Father Damen was 
 puzzled. 
 
 'Have you no boys of your own?' he asked. 
 
 'None living,' said the poor woman. T had two boys 
 who were acolytes of the Holy Family Church, but 
 they are dead.' He described the boys and she recog- 
 nized them for her own. They had brought the priest 
 
'The Qhicago Fire and Jljter 191 
 
 to their mother. On descending the stairs for the re- 
 turn journey, Father Damen found that the boys had 
 disappeared. The mother died before morning. And 
 the two statues in the sanctuary were placed there in 
 memory of this strange sick call in the storm. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE WORK OF THE MISSIONS 
 
 THE work of Damen's life which we have thus far 
 endeavored to outline has been his Catholic colo- 
 nization of the west side of Chicago. Damen discovered 
 the west side for Chicagoans and was the greatest sin- 
 gle propelling force behind its rapid growth. Father 
 Conway, in his sermon on the occasion of the golden 
 jubilee of the parish, calls Father Damen 'the great- 
 est apostle of all the Jesuits of Chicago' and 'the 
 founder and father of the Holy Family parish and the 
 great west side/ And indeed, when we merely touch 
 off on our fingers the list of his achievements there, we 
 say to ourselves that this is surely a full life of work 
 for one man. Two churches built, six schools, two high 
 schools and a college, all fully equipped and functioning 
 with detailed accuracy; a parish rising from the zero 
 point to the largest parish in the world within fifteen 
 years ; the entire financial outlay necessary for this im- 
 mense work procured, not by endowments, but dollar 
 by dollar from the small offerings of the generous poor 
 — looking at all this, one would naturally say, 'This is 
 a wonderful monument to the activity of any man, a 
 complete rounded-out career spiritually, educationally 
 and financially. None but a giant could have done it.' 
 
 And yet, this was not Damen's greatest or most ar- 
 duous work. Although this is the spot that he loved 
 more dearly than any place on earth, it was only the 
 hub of his activities. From this point his energy radi- 
 ated out over the whole country from the Atlantic to 
 
 192 
 
The Work of the Missions 193 
 
 the Pacific coast, through the missions he conducted 
 for more than thirty years. 
 
 Damen could not, in fact, be confined within the 
 limits of a parish. His thoughts, aspirations, ambitions, 
 spread far beyond, out to a world that needed the mes- 
 sage of Christ. The apostolic command, 'Go and teach 
 all nations, baptizing them,' he felt to the very depths 
 of his soul as an imperative personal call, and he was 
 restless until he answered it. While he was building up 
 the Holy Family parish, he constantly had in mind the 
 whole of America. The work he was doing for his 
 people in Chicago must be carried abroad. Everyone 
 must hear of Christ in his Catholic Church. From the 
 very beginning of his building in Chicago he went out 
 to give missions, at first only at intervals. But as the 
 parish flowered and bloomed, and his home organiza- 
 tion operated with increasing perfection, he gradually 
 took more and more time to spread the Gospel through- 
 out the country. 
 
 His success was instantaneous. The power of his 
 preaching, and the apostolic gift he possessed of touch- 
 ing the innermost heart and conscience of all hearers, 
 resulted in a demand for his services from every part 
 of the country. Within a few years he was drawing 
 immense crowds wherever he appeared. A letter of 
 Bishop Lefevre of Detroit to Archbishop Purcell of 
 Cincinnati, dated April 6, i860, tells of a mission in 
 the former city : 
 
 Reverend Father Damen, S.J., gave an extraordinary 
 mission at the Cathedral which was continued for three 
 weeks, during which time we (from ten to fourteen, and 
 sometimes sixteen, confessors) were from early in the 
 morning until late at night constantly occupied in the con- 
 fessional. This mission was indeed extraordinary in the 
 good effects and in the sensation it created throughout 
 the city and we had the consolation of giving the Holy 
 
194 ^Arnold Ttamen, SJ. 
 
 Communion to 7,500 persons and of receiving sixty-seven 
 Protestants into the church. 
 
 As time went on, the wonder excited by these early 
 missions died down, because such results became com- 
 mon. Wherever Damen appeared the same marvels of 
 the operation of divine grace followed his preaching, 
 until his name became a household word in every sec- 
 tion of the United States. And he never lost this power 
 until the end of his life. 
 
 Damen had, in a striking degree, the fundamental 
 vocation of the Jesuit — the missionary vocation. This 
 shows in his letters, his talk, his plans, his actions, his 
 prayers. He always was looking for souls. And while 
 he valued the indirect way of reaching them, as is evi- 
 denced by his provision for the education of his Chi- 
 cago flock from primary grades to college, his great 
 desire was, like Xavier's, to reach them directly. The 
 method he employed was apostolic, and it was strictly 
 in accord with the favored ideal of the Society of Jesus. 
 Circumstances have forced the Jesuits to accomplish 
 much of their work through the indirect method of 
 education. But it is quite clear from their rules, their 
 spiritual training, as well as from the special seal the 
 Church sets on their work, that theirs is above all the 
 direct missionary spirit. It was the ideal of Ignatius 
 and all the early Fathers of the Order. One of their 
 first rules tells us that it is according to their vocation 
 to travel to any part of the world where there is hope 
 of God's greater glory and the good of souls. The 
 Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, which we may 
 term the spiritual backbone of the Society, and accord- 
 ing to which all her members are trained, is a work 
 almost exclusively missionary in its tone and content. 
 Its keystone meditation is the Two Standards. And all 
 the way it teaches nothing but Christ, and Him cruci- 
 fied. St. Paul, we believe, would have been delighted 
 
7 'he Work of the Missions 195 
 
 with these Ignatian Exercises. Moreover, the official 
 public approval of the Church rests particularly on the 
 mission work of the Society. Her canonized saints, her 
 martyrs and confessors enrolled among the blessed, 
 are nearly all of them who lived to do the full work of 
 the Society taken from among the missionaries. Even 
 the Jesuit saints who were not formally engaged on the 
 missions are remarkable especially for the missionary 
 work they accomplished. St. Peter Canisius, who did 
 much for college education, is nevertheless best known 
 as the 'Watch Dog of Germany' for his missionary 
 zeal. The Blessed Bellarmine, who stayed at home prac- 
 tically all his life, reached across Germany and France 
 and over into England and Scotland with his Con- 
 troversies, a missionary achievement if ever there was 
 one. St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, porter at the house gate 
 in Salamanca for fifty years, is famous for his having 
 shown St. Peter Claver his vocation to be apostle of the 
 negroes. And today in the Church, we find Ignatius the 
 patron of all retreats, Xavier of the foreign missions, 
 Claver of missions to the negroes. 
 
 This missionary spirit underlies all Jesuit educational 
 effort. Sometimes we read superficial estimates of the 
 Society wherein it is described as essentially a body of 
 teachers and men of learning. Aside from the comic- 
 opera notion that any association of merely learned 
 men could accomplish the work of Christ, it is certain 
 that the Church would never recognize such a body as 
 a part of her spiritual structure. With secular knowl- 
 edge as such the Church has nothing to do. It is for 
 the religious uses it can be made to serve that she 
 values it. Properly employed, it is a means, but never 
 the last end she proposes to herself in fostering it. 
 Cardinal Newman, in his preface to The Idea of a 
 University, brings out this truth very clearly. 'Just as 
 a commander,' he says, 'wishes to have tall and well- 
 formed and vigorous soldiers, not from any abstract 
 
196 ^Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 devotion to the military standard of height or age, but 
 for the purposes of war ... so, in like manner, when 
 the Church founds a University, she is not cherishing 
 talent, genius or knowledge for their own sake, but for 
 the sake of her children, with a view to their spiritual 
 welfare and their religious influence and usefulness.' 
 
 Education therefore serves the Church exactly in 
 proportion as it is lit up from within and vivified by 
 this missionary spirit, the desire to spread the kingdom 
 of Christ. Indirect though its method be, it is never- 
 theless an effective weapon, but only as it has its in- 
 spiration from the direct desire for the salvation of 
 souls. This is its breath of life, otherwise it is dead 
 clay. 
 
 Damen did not underestimate the worth of educa- 
 tional work in the Church. This is clear from the way 
 in which he made room for it at once in his great 
 parish for its full training from grades to college. He 
 did, however, see the danger of so overemphasizing its 
 importance that in the minds of some who were en- 
 gaged in it, culture might come to take the place of re- 
 ligion, and natural intelligence be considered a satis- 
 factory substitute for divine grace. He himself was 
 always a strong advocate of the direct appeal of the 
 Church to the human soul. Membership in the Church 
 came first in every sense with him, and all the rest 
 would follow. 'You can have Catholics without col- 
 leges,' he said, 'but you cannot have Catholic colleges 
 without Catholics.' 
 
 With this conviction, he turned himself to the wide 
 field of the missions. 
 
 Father Damen was the first priest in the United 
 States to give missions, as we commonly understand 
 organized missions nowadays. Others before him had 
 gone over various parts of the country, evangelizing 
 and fortifying the Catholics scattered through its ter- 
 ritory. Following the retirement of the Indians, emi- 
 
The Work of the ^Missions 197 
 
 gration set westward in a steady tide. New lands 
 thrown open for settlement were rapidly occupied. The 
 swiftness of movement, the shifting from place to place 
 over the vast spread of country as more attractive op- 
 portunities arose, and the consequent difficulties of 
 communication made the Middle West for many years 
 simply a disappearing ground for the early settlers. 
 Nobody knew where they had gone to. Priests were 
 scarce, numbering not nearly enough to care for the 
 Catholics in the established towns of the East. Only a 
 few priests were able to adventure in the West, and 
 these had to pick their way from place to place, di- 
 rected largely by hearsay. It took robust health, tireless 
 energy and iron endurance to last for any length of 
 time under such hard and hazardous toil. 
 
 Gradually this wandering population began to enu- 
 cleate itself into little communities and then the mis- 
 sionaries had something more tangible to start from. 
 Single missionaries then began to go about, preaching, 
 baptizing, confessing and saying Mass for these com- 
 munities at set stations. They revived the dying sparks 
 of religion among those who had been without the help 
 of the Church for many years and prepared the way 
 for more organized work to follow on a larger scale. 
 The Redemptorist Fathers were early in this field and 
 did excellent pioneering. The name of Father Mazu- 
 chelli, the Dominican, is a name that is revered in Wis- 
 consin and the North. Father Ponziglione, the Jesuit, 
 did similar work in the Southwest. And Father Wen- 
 inger traveled over a great part of the country giving 
 missions as he went. From the letters of Father Paul 
 Ponziglione to his Provincial, Father Thomas O'Neil, 
 we can get a very good idea of the life these traveling 
 missionaries led sixty and seventy years ago in the far 
 West. Father Ponziglione spent most of his religious 
 life in America working over the vast space of Kansas 
 and adjoining territory. His journal as written is full 
 
198 ^Arnold Ttametiy SJ. 
 
 of interesting details, but we can only skeletonize a 
 bit of it here, since our purpose is merely to mark his 
 movements. We give an outline sketch of one of his 
 journeys as reported to his Provincial. 
 
 On the 1 8th of September I left for one of my mission- 
 ary excursions northwest of Osage mission. And first I 
 directed my course to the Verdigris River, visiting all the 
 Catholic settlements I have formed from Greenwood City 
 up to the very sources of the river. . . . 
 
 From the sources of the Verdigris I passed to those 
 of Eagle Creek, to visit a Catholic settlement. This set- 
 tlement is composed of Germans. They gave me a cordial 
 reception and next morning all came to their duties. . . . 
 
 I now turned my way toward Eureka. I had to travel 
 some 40 long miles, and night overtook me on a very large 
 and high prairie, and as the nearest house was 6 miles 
 distant, I had to put out for the night on the green grass, 
 which was plentiful and offered excellent food for my 
 horse. All was silence around me and I sat down to eat 
 my supper, which consisted of some dry bread and 
 fruits. . . . 
 
 At dawn of day I was up, and having taken my break- 
 fast, which was as frugal as the preceding supper, I was 
 on my way about sunrise, traveling alone through those 
 interminable prairies. Toward noon I reached Eureka, 
 numbering some 1,500 inhabitants, of which only some 
 twenty are Catholics. I had the pleasure of offering the 
 first Mass that was ever celebrated in Eureka. Hearing 
 that some seven miles west there was a girl who was very 
 sick, I went that day to her house and administered to 
 her the Last Sacraments. . . . 
 
 From her house I took the way that leads to Eldorado 
 and stopped on Bird Creek, to say Mass for the few 
 Catholics of that locality. The settlement is very small 
 and poor, but the faith of the people forming it 
 is great. . . . 
 
 From Bird Creek I passed to Eldorado. Here I found 
 some new Catholics, but very few, so I did not stop long, 
 but proceeded to the junction of Walnut and Turkey 
 Creeks, said Mass there, and thence descended to the con- 
 
The Work of the {Missions 199 
 
 fluence of the Walnut and the Whitewaters, where a small 
 but interesting town, called Augusta, is springing up. . . . 
 
 Leaving Augusta, I took an old Indian trail going 
 directly east, and after nearly two days of a fatiguing and 
 lonesome journey, through a hilly and rocky prairie, I 
 came to Fall River. I then directed my route to Burlington, 
 and pressing along the Neosho, I stopped at the source 
 of a small stream called the Pecan, where we have a 
 Scotch settlement, all very fervent Catholics. On the 6th 
 of November, I again got on the western trail and came 
 to New Chicago. The next morning I had a good attend- 
 ance at Mass, the first Mass ever offered in the town. 
 
 Though a very heavy rain continued falling almost the 
 whole of that day, I traveled some twenty miles through 
 an immense prairie, which divides the waters of the Neo- 
 sho from the Verdigris ; and the next day I reached Fre- 
 donia, visited the Catholics scattered there, read Mass for 
 them, and left for New Boston, started last May by a 
 Catholic colony of young men. Though the day was a very 
 bad one, on account of the rain that came streaming down 
 from heaven, we had a tolerably good attendance. 
 
 About noon I took up my course on the east bank of 
 the Canis. The wind was very chilling and I suffered a 
 good deal on that account. At last, after two days of trav- 
 eling, I reached the Osage Reservation in the Indian Ter- 
 ritory. I remained there with them some seven days. 
 Though the weather was very bad by reason of the con- 
 tinual rain, and the creeks all very high, I went around the 
 best way I could through the settlements formed between 
 the junction of the two Canies and the Agency, a distance 
 of twenty miles. . . . 
 
 This was my last missionary excursion of this year, and 
 it was a very hard one, on account of the bad weather 
 which accompanied me through the whole of it. . . . We 
 are only three priests and are attending over 5,000 Cath- 
 olics, scattered in this far West, over a territory of more 
 than 200 by 100 miles in extent. Indeed we have reason 
 to say messis quidem multa o per aril autem pauci. 
 
 This work soon grew to be of imperative importance. 
 The Jesuits had recognized the need of such missions 
 
200 ^Arnold T)amen y SJ. 
 
 at an early date. In 1843, Father Murphy, who later 
 was visitor to the Missouri district, wrote to Father 
 Roothaan, then General, hoping that something would 
 soon be done for this new situation arising through 
 the West. His idea was to have men 'to go about, after 
 the manner of St. Francis de Sales, proving and ex- 
 plaining Catholic belief, without mentioning heresy/ 
 
 Father Weninger had already devoted himself for 
 years to the Volksmissionen, or popular missions to the 
 German people scattered over the country. He worked 
 entirely across the United States with very striking 
 results. He did perhaps as much as any one man to 
 keep the German immigrants, many of whom had very 
 little knowledge of English, in the Catholic faith. And 
 his experiences made him see clearly that the same work 
 was needed for all Catholics in the country. They were 
 drifting away from the Church through lack of priests, 
 through isolation and hostile environment. In 185 1, 
 he wrote strongly to Father Roothaan calling for mis- 
 sions for all the neglected Catholics in remote localities. 
 
 In the general correspondence of the Missouri 
 Jesuits with headquarters, the call for missions per- 
 sistently recurs. Father De Smet writes to Rome in 
 1854: 'We are impatiently looking forward to the time 
 when we shall have a body of missionaries for Ameri- 
 can Catholics. ' In the same year Father Gleizal wrote 
 to the General that all the Jesuits express regret that 
 nothing is done along the line of missions. He insists 
 that college work was taking up too much attention 
 relatively to the spiritual necessities of the country. 
 'Bishop Miege,' he adds, 'is of opinion that I should 
 communicate with you on this matter. He thinks, as 
 I do, that the missions is the work of works.* 
 
 Four years later, Father Weninger returns to the 
 charge. After citing St. Francis Xavier's opinion of 
 the doctors of the Sorbonne taking it easy in Paris 
 while souls were suffering in India, 'Who will under- 
 
The Work of the Missions 20 1 
 
 stand/ he continues, 'how it happens that so many- 
 Fathers in the colleges are teaching boys algebra and 
 working chemical experiments for them, while at the 
 same time, before their very eyes, crowds of souls are 
 being driven headlong down to perdition? . . . We 
 must indeed do one thing and not neglect the other. 
 Colleges are necessary and very excellent things. But 
 they are not what is chiefly, much less what is exclu- 
 sively needed in the present condition of things in this 
 country.' 
 
 Anxiety about the neglect of large bodies of Catho- 
 lics took hold also of the Bishops. The second Provin- 
 cial synod of Cincinnati, in 1858, while appreciating 
 the work already done by the Jesuits in the diocese, es- 
 pecially by Father Smarius, recommended that more 
 men be sent into the mission field, and asked for peri- 
 odic missions in all parishes. Upon receiving this ex- 
 press wish of the Council, Father Beckx wrote from 
 Rome, to Father Druyts, the Jesuit Vice-Provincial : 
 
 Tn a matter of such importance, belonging as it does, 
 to the principal activities of our Institute, your Rever- 
 ence will endeavor to comply effectually with the very 
 reasonable wishes of the Bishops.' 
 
 Father Druyts, in reply, represented the shortage of 
 men for the work already in hand, but promised never- 
 theless that the General's wish should be attended to 
 at once. He then asked the General's permission to 
 shorten the period of tertianship for some of the 
 Fathers then engaged in the year of spiritual study and 
 meditation which follows their ordination. He men- 
 tioned among them Fathers Damen and Smarius. The 
 General gave him the permission. 
 
 Father Druyts at the same time wrote to Archbishop 
 Purcell of Cincinnati, explaining that the colleges were 
 the great drawback to the missions, but that two or 
 three men would nevertheless be set aside immedi- 
 ately for the work. 
 
202 ^Arnold T)amen> SJ. 
 
 Fifteen years had thus passed since Father Murphy, 
 the Visitor, had recommended the sending of men out 
 to preach to the people. Now at last something was 
 apparently to be done. A beginning was made with the 
 formal appointment of one man, Father Coosemans, 
 instead of the four or six asked for by the Bishops. 
 He started out and did excellent work in the Cincin- 
 nati province. His reports to his superiors, supporting 
 Weninger's position, show his realization of the great 
 need of missions and his appreciation of the response 
 the people everywhere made to his efforts. But he had 
 hardly got started when, in January, 1859, he was 
 withdrawn and made President of St. Louis Univer- 
 sity. And again Father Weninger was the only mis- 
 sionary left in the field. The mission movement was 
 back to its minimum. 
 
 This retirement of Father Coosemans aroused the 
 indignation of Father Weninger. He protested to the 
 General at the change. 'This ministry of the missions/ 
 he wrote, 'is of far greater importance A.M.D.G. than 
 the office of Rector.' Other appeals of the same import 
 were sent by many of the Fathers. 
 
 Father Beckx was moved by their pleadings and 
 again and again suggested to Father Druyts the neces- 
 sity of advancing the cause of the missions. Father 
 Coosemans should be replaced, at the least. 'Could not 
 Father Damen, among others, be put at this work?' he 
 asked. 'However, I do not insist on this, for I know 
 that he labors with much fruit in Chicago/ Father 
 Damen had had his tertianship shortened for the ex- 
 press purpose of hastening his appearance on the mis- 
 sions, and there were yet no signs of his engaging in it. 
 
 'I desire/ wrote the General again, 'that more 
 Fathers, as far as circumstances permit, be assigned 
 to the missions/ 
 
 Father Druyts begged for time. He had not sup- 
 posed that the Bishops and the General had wished 
 
The Work of the {Missions 203 
 
 this matter attended to immediately. He saw what 
 should be done for the missions, he said, but did not 
 have the men. Damen was now building and organizing 
 the Chicago west side, and could not be absent. Sma- 
 rius was a necessity in St. Louis. Driscoll was putting 
 up a new church in Cincinnati. Nobody who was apt 
 as a missionary, was free. 'The number of preachers 
 among us is not considerable.' Viewing all the possi- 
 bilities, he could not recommend a single person for the 
 missions. Clearly, Father Druyts was not merely dis- 
 tressed. He was bewildered. 
 
 This hesitancy and timidity in launching out into 
 the missionary field strike the impartial observer as a 
 strange attitude for a missionary body to assume. 
 Father Druyts' position is only to be explained from 
 his words to Archbishop Purcell, that the colleges were 
 'the great drawback to the missions.' He seemed un- 
 willing to risk anything in the colleges for the mission 
 venture. Theoretically he favored the missions, but 
 practically he was strong for the colleges. He knew the 
 good work the colleges were doing. But though he had 
 come to the United States as a missionary, he had had 
 no practical experience of the immense possibilities of 
 the mission field. His angle of observation was aca- 
 demic, cutting off a direct vision of the missions. 
 
 Nevertheless, the current was beginning to flow, 
 however feebly. An idea, like a tree, takes time to 
 grow. Insistence on the necessity for missions con- 
 tinued. Damen's name began to be mentioned more 
 and more. The roots of the mission idea were starting 
 into life. Providence was guiding matters toward 
 finally establishing Damen as the great trunk of the 
 mission tree. As soon as hrs work in the Chicago parish 
 had taken shape, he was assigned to the missions dur- 
 ing all the time he could spare. 
 
 Damen's first occasional missions, which were 
 merely the prelude to his later great work, when he car- 
 
204 Arnold Teamen, SJ. 
 
 ried on continuously, were nevertheless so impressive 
 in their results that Father Weninger now wrote to the 
 General thanking God and the Blessed Virgin that at 
 last 'the English missions have been begun. Let your 
 Paternity be convinced that the missions are the very 
 sort of employment necessary above all others/ Only 
 develop the missions and, he says, 'we shall hear of 
 wonders. More will be accomplished A.M.D.G. for 
 the salvation of souls in one year than in a hundred 
 years through the colleges. Facts speak. In every Eng- 
 lish mission Father Damen receives fourteen, six- 
 teen, twenty, nay in one mission as many as sixty 
 Protestants.' 
 
 As a missionary, Damen appeared on the scene just 
 as the nomadic stage of western life was drawing to 
 its close and the industrial age beginning. This trans- 
 formation took place with striking rapidity. Farms 
 began to appear ; towns sprang up over night ; business 
 crystallized into shape; steady traffic streamed from 
 point to point. The great West swung out of its nebu- 
 lar condition into a visible system of connected inter- 
 ests. American business was taking off with its first 
 rush. 
 
 For the faith of Catholics this was a peculiarly dan- 
 gerous period. Up to this time they had drifted about 
 with scant opportunity of keeping close to the Church. 
 Many of them could hear Mass but occasionally, and 
 even less often receive the Sacraments. There were 
 no Catholic schools for their children; sermons and 
 instructions were a rarity. Their daily prayers and the 
 fading recollections of the religious teachings of their 
 childhood were all that held them moored to their faith. 
 Often enough this grew to be a very slender thread 
 that the slightest strain could sever. 
 
 And now the material things of life began to appeal 
 to them strongly. Money appeared on the scene; busi- 
 ness boomed in the towns, and hummed along the rail- 
 
'The Work of the ^Missions 10$ 
 
 roads and waterways; the prospect of wealth opened 
 before poor men for the first time in many centuries ; 
 the possibility of civic distinction, of an equality of 
 importance in the nation's life dawned upon them. Nat- 
 urally, the ambition to profit by their chances, and to 
 exercise powers long atrophied by disuse, grew in them 
 like a fever. The temptation was to throw themselves 
 at any cost into the flood that led on to fortune. 
 
 In many cases the cost came high. For, together 
 with the absence of Catholic instruction and the Sacra- 
 ments on the one hand and the contagious fever of 
 money-getting on the other, the religious atmosphere 
 all about them became positively hostile. Catholics were 
 outnumbered a hundred to one and every one of the 
 hundred despised the Catholic religion. They were 
 looked down on, too, as ignorant, fit only to be hewers 
 of wood and drawers of water. The kindest feeling 
 toward them was a condescending pity, only a short step 
 from contempt. The attitude of the educated mind 
 toward Catholics in the mid-nineteenth century can be 
 realized in the pages of insular and solemn snobbery 
 of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Boston high priest of 
 transcendental culture. And the animus of the un- 
 educated revealed itself in the Know-Nothing move- 
 ment and the burning of the Catholic churches and 
 convents of Philadelphia. 
 
 We of today do not appreciate the bitter struggles, 
 both from within and from without, that the Catholics 
 of the 'forties had to wage to hold true to their faith. 
 The marvel is that they could be pushed so far under- 
 ground, and afterward emerge with a vitality which 
 was to form the solid basis of all future Catholic 
 growth. But the danger was great, the temptation con- 
 stant and omnipresent to give up their hold. No one saw 
 this danger more clearly than Damen, and no single 
 man did as much, perhaps, to meet it efficiently and to 
 
206 ^Arnold Damen, SJ. 
 
 keep alive among those early Catholics the practical 
 faith that we are building upon today. 
 
 He could not look on these sufferings and perils of 
 his fellow Catholics and remain at home. The mis- 
 sionary call was too strong. The command 'Go, and 
 teach,' pursued him so constantly that it became a part 
 of his life. He must go out to these people, revive and 
 strengthen their faith, hearten them to endure. He 
 would campaign the whole United States, everywhere, 
 from the largest cities to the smallest towns, meet every 
 class of persons and preach the word of God to them. 
 And when he got the word to start, he had definite and 
 matured ideas of just how he would cover the field. He 
 would travel much, of course, as did the other priests 
 who had gone before him. But he differed from them 
 in this, that he would put system into his drive. He 
 planned his work on a business basis. First of all, he 
 aimed to travel on schedule. He signed up large cities, 
 small town parishes, scattered communities, ahead of 
 time, so that they could prepare to meet him. The 
 priests in parishes could thus announce his coming to 
 their flocks, and go out and gather in the strays. In 
 sparsely settled districts the news would have time to 
 spread. Arrangements could thus be made for the long 
 journeys that many of those people would have to take 
 to attend the missions. For Damen intended to stay a 
 week at least in each place, and up to three and four 
 weeks, if the work demanded it. 
 
 He had, moreover, a very definite spiritual aim in his 
 campaign. He was never a man who did anything at 
 random or left the success of an undertaking to a break 
 of chance. And much less here, for he looked on the 
 missions as the great work of his life. His purpose was 
 twofold : to strengthen the practical Catholic in his 
 faith, to bring back the lax and the fallen away; and 
 after that, to present to his non-Catholic fellow citizens 
 the reasonableness and the beauty of Catholic teaching, 
 
The Work of the (Missions 207 
 
 to convert them to the Church if possible, or at least to 
 enlighten bigotry and to clear away prejudice. 
 
 To attain the first end, namely, fortifying the Catho- 
 lic, he chose the mission as his effective weapon. And 
 for the second, he prepared a series of popular discus- 
 sions on such points of controversy as commonly came 
 up between Catholics and Protestants, explaining 
 lucidly the doctrine of the Church and refuting its mis- 
 representations. 
 
 In following out both these purposes he was again 
 characteristically systematic. For the ground plan of 
 his mission work he followed closely the Spiritual Exer- 
 cises of St. Ignatius. This famous method for the 
 rehabilitation of the moral life is exactly what it des- 
 cribes itself to be — a series of setting-up exercises for 
 the soul. The medical physician prescribes for the 
 health of the body fresh air, sunshine and exercise. 
 In a parallel manner, the Ignatian method of gaining 
 soul health calls for fresh air of meditation on the 
 teachings of Christ, the exercise of the will determin- 
 ing to follow Him, and the sunshine of God's grace 
 implored through prayer. The complete treatment 
 offered by Ignatius occupies a full month divided into 
 four distinct periods. The first period considers man's 
 place in the world, his dependence on God and the serv- 
 ice due in consequence. The three following periods 
 go into the details of this service, basing all its lessons 
 upon the life of man's model, Christ, from His birth to 
 His resurrection. 
 
 This series of more than a hundred and twenty medi- 
 tations is logically and progressively built up, broad- 
 ening and deepening as it advances. And nowhere is 
 its treatment of the patient merely automatic. It does 
 not regard the exercitant as a person passively under- 
 going an electric massage. On the contrary, he must 
 reach out to the truths briefly presented, assimilate 
 them into his own mind and will, do his own praying 
 
20 8 Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 for light and grace. In short, he must live the Exer- 
 cises himself, not listen to them. It is personal action 
 that is demanded from him. 
 
 Damen could not, of course, in a week's time, give 
 this whole treatment. Accordingly, he selected the first 
 period, the foundation of the Ignatian Exercises, as 
 the core of his mission, deftly introducing along the 
 way such portions of the other three periods as could 
 be assimilated without blurring the clear-cut aim of his 
 work. He intended the mission to be an intense spiritual 
 drive. A drive, to be effective, must have four things. 
 It must have force, direction, continuity and cumula- 
 tion. In other words, it must go, and go straight, go 
 all the time and with increasing power as it travels. 
 After some experimenting and observing of practical 
 results, Damen finally arrived at the following arrange- 
 ment of subjects, which was strictly adhered to as far 
 as possible and is the program of the Jesuit missionaries 
 to the present day. He divided the mission into two 
 parts, namely, morning and evening services. The 
 topics of his sermons were sequential in each division, 
 but were nevertheless so chosen that the sermons in one 
 division helped those in the other, and the correlation 
 was so skillfully done that at the end of the mission 
 one great single impression was left on all those who 
 made it. An outline of his plan as he finally shaped it, 
 will make this clear. 
 
 Damen's one object in the mission was to give his 
 hearers a horror of sin and then teach them how to 
 fight it with all the aids of the Catholic Church. This 
 is how he proceeded: His evening sermons were as 
 follows : On the End of Man; On Sin; On Confession; 
 On Hell; On Death; On Judgment; The Holy Hour; 
 On Perseverance. 
 
 A brief consideration will show how well these topics 
 dovetail together, growing into a final appeal from 
 
"The Work of the {Missions 209 
 
 which the listener will find it logically impossible to 
 escape. 
 
 The first subject, the end or purpose of man, devel- 
 ops the idea that man belongs to God, hence that he 
 must not sin. Then follows the concrete study of what 
 sin actually does to a man. This, in Damen's hands, 
 became a powerful study of the interior life of the 
 sinner and his misery. The remedy for this condition 
 was next taken up in the sermon on Confession, with 
 the dogmatic proof of its institution as a Sacrament 
 and a full revelation of its healing power, consoling and 
 encouraging. The next sermon, on Hell, unfolds the 
 lasting punishment of the unrepentant sinner. This, 
 according to all accounts, was Damen's most terrifying 
 sermon. Then the sermon on Death, a concentrated 
 view of life from the standpoint of the exit from this 
 world, showing the hollowness of a life of sin and its 
 folly. Judgment gave the same view from the threshold 
 of the next world, underscoring the impression pro- 
 duced by the consideration of death, with the final 
 divine decision stamped upon the sinner. The Holy 
 Hour, introduced later by Damen, gathered all these 
 ideas together before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, 
 and the last sermon on Perseverance, given at the end 
 of the mission, after Holy Communion had been re- 
 ceived and a new start resolved upon, practically directs 
 all how to go onward in the new path. 
 
 Damen's whole mission was based on the text, 'What 
 doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose 
 his own soul?' And he never let go of that idea for a 
 minute. The destiny of man, the problem of the world, 
 the importance of his solving this problem and of sav- 
 ing his soul, met the hearer at every turn and isolated 
 him from every other consideration until he had settled 
 for himself this one thing. And Damen held so tena- 
 ciously to this one idea all through its varying aspects 
 and consequences, wove from it so logical and per- 
 
210 ^Arnold Teamen, SJ. 
 
 sonal an argument that his hearers were unable, and at 
 the last, unwilling to break loose from it. They 
 were caught in the net of salvation. They knew, saw, 
 felt, what sin is and what it does to them, as they never 
 felt it before. 
 
 This was the first division of his plan. Parallel to 
 this and co-ordinated with it, came the morning ser- 
 mons, filling in all along the line with practical helps 
 for the avoidance of sin. Each morning sermon was 
 carefully adjusted to follow up the work of the night 
 before, as strong contributary streams to the main 
 channel. Thus, for example, after the sermon on the 
 End of Man, came the topic Prayer, the great help to 
 attain that end. After the sermon on Sin, a practical 
 talk on how to go about making a good Confession, 
 thus encouraging the sinner by taking him, as it were, 
 by the hand, and going over the ground with him per- 
 sonally. After the night sermon on the spiritual neces- 
 sity of Confession, followed the morning talk on the 
 Mass, the great central act of faith in Christ and the 
 open proof that one's Confession is sincere. So through 
 the talks on the use of the Tongue, on Holy Commun- 
 ion, on the Blessed Virgin, all of these together cover- 
 ing the Commandments and the Sacraments in sufficient 
 detail to round out and complete the work. To put 
 Damen's mission plan in a nutshell, the evening ser- 
 mons made a man look at himself in his relation to 
 God; and the morning talks prescribed the means 
 to readjust that relation and gave him the antidotes to 
 preserve it. The whole formed a strong practical course 
 in fundamental spirituality. 
 
 This mission was intended primarily for adult Cath- 
 olics. But Damen soon saw that children also could 
 profit by a mission, and early in his career he reached 
 out for them. He assembled them from the parochial 
 schools at certain hours of the day when the press of 
 the regular mission was lessened and gave them a little 
 
The Work of the {Missions 21 1 
 
 mission suited to their years. He arranged, too, to have 
 the Catholic children in the public schools released for 
 those hours to attend these talks, and he heard all their 
 Confessions. 
 
 The lectures to Protestants were given on the day 
 after the mission was over. Ordinarily he gave one lec- 
 ture, sometimes two or three on successive days. His 
 subjects here were on the Bible and its private inter- 
 pretation; on the Church, as the only true Church of 
 God; on Confession, its reasonableness, its scriptural 
 foundation, its moral power; on Popular Objections 
 against the Catholic Church. 
 
 Damen was not satisfied, however, with simply giv- 
 ing lectures to non-Catholics. He had not been long in 
 the field when he discovered that many of them wished 
 to come in closer touch with the missionary, and to 
 receive personal answers to their difficulties on religion. 
 He therefore opened a class of instruction and made it 
 a regular section of his mission work. It grew to be of 
 great importance, advertised as it was for weeks before 
 the mission began, and during the mission constantly 
 recommended. Many of his most faithful converts were 
 the product of these conferences and instructions. Thus 
 it will be seen that Damen covered the entire field, 
 leaving no loophole of escape for anyone who sincerely 
 wished to turn to God and the true Church. He pro- 
 vided for the Catholics, young and old, and for non- 
 Catholics he opened every possible road to the removal 
 of their prejudices and their ultimate conversion. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE CALL FOR MISSIONARIES 
 
 THE first missions undertaken by Damen were given 
 while he was still the acting pastor of the Holy 
 Family parish, and they were given alone. He was not 
 entirely familiar with the spiritual tone of the country, 
 and he went ahead tentatively, supposing that he would 
 likely be able to carry on by himself. But he had hardly 
 started when he discovered that this work was just what 
 these people had been athirst for. They came up as it 
 were out of the ground by the thousands. It was like 
 some magic. Everywhere he put down the spiritual drill 
 he was greeted by a gusher that poured all about and 
 nearly submerged him. The fields were white and ready 
 for the harvest. But the laborers for the reaping — where 
 could they be found ? Damen called for help, and as we 
 shall see, he kept calling for help the rest of his life. He 
 foresaw at once that the work would keep overtopping 
 the efforts of all the men he could muster to attack it. 
 As to his being able to carry on alone, it was like try- 
 ing to bail out the ocean with his scooped hands. In 
 Detroit, in the spring of i860, while in the midst of a 
 crowded mission, his voice failed. He wrote to Father 
 Druyts on March eleventh : 
 
 In the name of God send Father Smarius, or at least 
 Father Coosemans. My voice has given out ; I can scarcely 
 be heard. I force myself because I see the terrible condi- 
 tion in which religion is. So many have apostatized from 
 the Church, so many have abandoned the practice of re- 
 ligious duties, that I cannot but exert myself to bring back 
 these lost souls. At the same time I may lose my voice 
 
 212 
 
The Qall for ^Missionaries 213 
 
 forever if I continue. Do then, for God's sake, send 
 Smarius or Coosemans to help me. You know well that I 
 am the last man to call for assistance when I can do it 
 myself. But I must acknowledge this time that I can- 
 not do it. 
 
 I am strong myself and feel myself devoured with 
 zeal, but my voice fails me. The people are attending in 
 crowds and do expect a great deal from this mission. The 
 good of souls, then, the glory of God and of our So- 
 ciety demand that you send some one at once to help me. 
 Oh, think how large a city this is, how many souls bought 
 by the precious blood of Christ. Do, then, for God's sake, 
 send Father Smarius or Coosemans. 
 
 As he moved from place to place and the Bishops, 
 the priests and the people saw the great revivals of faith 
 springing up in every spot he touched, applications for 
 his services came to him from every side. He kept try- 
 ing to get more men for the work. The best he could do 
 was to have one or two men loaned to him for part of 
 the time. 
 
 At last, after two years of exhausting mission-giving 
 that would have prostrated a man of less powerful 
 physique, the tide turned. Damen obtained his first 
 permanent relief, partial though it was as to the number 
 he required. 'The turning point in the fortunes of the 
 missions,' Father Garraghan says in his History of the 
 Missouri Province, 'came with the appointment of 
 Father Cornelius Smarius to the work in 186 1, as team- 
 mate to Father Damen.' For ten years, the decade from 
 1 86 1 to 1870, Damen and Smarius were the two names 
 upon everybody's lips as the most successful mission- 
 aries that had yet appeared in the United States. Some- 
 times together and sometimes separately, they went 
 through the East and the Middle West, followed every- 
 where by the gratitude and the blessings of Bishops 
 and people for the great good they wrought for souls. 
 Father Smarius was a native of Holland, born in 1823. 
 At eighteen years of age he came to the United States 
 
214 Arnold T>amen y S.J. 
 
 to enter the Jesuit Novitiate at Florissant. He was 
 ordained in 1849, an d later for four years, between 
 1852 and 1856, studied theology at Fordham, N. Y., 
 specializing in Patristic literature. He was also a close 
 student of history. These special studies proved a strong 
 aid in his after career of preaching. From the first, 
 moreover, he had aimed steadily at the mastery of Eng- 
 lish and he persevered in this until it became practically 
 his mother tongue. He realized thoroughly, as did his 
 other confreres from Holland, that a lack of excellent 
 English is a forbidding handicap to efficient teaching in 
 any field. 
 
 For some years Smarius taught rhetoric in St. Xav- 
 ier's College, Cincinnati, and was then assigned to 
 preach in the College Church of St. Louis. Here his 
 ability as a preacher first won striking attention. Cath- 
 olics and Protestants came to hear him and he made 
 many conversions to the faith. He was not soon for- 
 gotten in St. Louis. In 1879, nearly twenty years after 
 his departure from that city, Judge Robert Bakewell 
 said, 'When will St. Louis again have a public speaker 
 who could move an audience as could Father Smarius ?' 
 Damen and Smarius are perhaps the two most promi- 
 nent examples in this country of supreme success in 
 preaching in an adopted tongue. 
 
 Mr. John Lesperance, himself a member of the 
 Jesuits for a time, afterwards a well-known journalist, 
 and a lifelong friend of Smarius, wrote in the St. Louis 
 Republic an appreciation of Smarius after his death. 
 
 Smarius, he says, though possessing a fine presence 
 and a resonant voice, was not especially favored by 
 nature. 
 
 His head, though shapely, was almost completely bald ; 
 his neck was short and he wore spectacles, a drawback 
 which he frequently regretted, as preventing him from 
 mastering his audience through the eye. Yet his oratorical 
 efforts were irresistible. 
 
The Qall for ^Missionaries 215 
 
 The thing which gave his eloquence the character of 
 genius was its intense human sentiment. He would go 
 along for a while in the best academic fashion — he gen- 
 erally wrote his discourses — when suddenly something 
 would strike him, either in the sequence of his thought or 
 the attitude of his audience, and then he would transform. 
 The broad chest would swell, the eye flash, the head toss, 
 the voice peal like a chime of bells, and the play of 
 imagination would be such as to throw off a series of 
 images, in climax or anti-climax, that I can compare to 
 nothing so well as to the fabled images of the Magic 
 Mirror. At a Commencement Day in St. John's College, 
 Fordham, N. Y., I remember that somehow everything 
 had gone wrong and a dismal failure was imminent, when 
 Father Smarius, who was a visitor here and had been 
 invited to address some words to the graduates, changed 
 the whole aspect of affairs in a few minutes. He spoke 
 not more than a quarter of an hour, but the effect was 
 electrical, and the audience almost beside itself. 
 
 His first introduction in St. Louis was through his 
 lecture on Pagan and Christian Families, which he dic- 
 tated to me only a little earlier, and read from my manu- 
 script. I was as proud as Punch of that circumstance. 
 I remember that Rev. Henry Giles and the eloquent 
 Uriah Wright were on the platform that night and de- 
 clared they had never heard a grander performance. 
 
 Smarius was the author of Points of Controversy 
 which still holds its place as a clear and forceful expo- 
 sition of Catholic doctrine. His funeral oration over 
 Governor Bissell of Illinois, who died a Catholic, and 
 his address to the Missouri Independent Guards in their 
 camp at the St. Louis Fair grounds in i860, may be 
 mentioned as examples of his style and power. 
 
 The arrival of Smarius on the mission field, wel- 
 come as it was to Damen, did not serve to reduce the 
 pressure of work. Just the opposite happened. Appli- 
 cations for their services grew out of all proportion to 
 their combined ability to meet them. Father Garraghan 
 writing in the Illinois Catholic Historical Review, says : 
 
21 6 Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 Every visible token of undoubted success marked the 
 parochial missions preached by Fathers Damen and 
 Smarius. During the twelve months, September, 1861, to 
 September, 1862, each of the two had conducted eighteen 
 missions, resulting in 600 conversions to the faith and in 
 120 reclamations of f alien-away Catholics to the Church. 
 Moreover, they distributed during the same period more 
 than 50,000 Holy Communions, at least one fifth of these 
 being to persons who had long neglected their religious 
 duties, some for as many as ten, twenty, thirty, and even 
 fifty years. 
 
 In short, the presence of two men on the missions 
 simply emphasized the need for still more. Both Damen 
 and Smarius now joined in asking for co-laborers. 
 During the year they succeeded in securing Father 
 Tschieder for part of the time. But the demands for 
 missions kept increasing. Father Damen endeavored to 
 meet the situation by writing to the General the fol- 
 lowing letter : 
 
 Chicago, Sept. 25th, 1861. 
 
 Very Reverend Father Beckx at the Gesu, 
 
 Rome, Italy. 
 
 My Very Reverend and dear Father General: 
 
 I hope your Paternity will pardon me for writing in 
 English. I have only a couple of hours and I could not do 
 it in French or Latin in so short a time. I wish to give 
 your Reverence a short account of my missionary labors 
 since I wrote to your Paternity, which is over a year now. 
 Since that time I have given 30 missions, in some of these 
 Father Tschieder has been my co-laborer. In these 30 mis- 
 sions we have given about 90,000 Communions ; we have 
 brought back to the Church some 30,000 persons, who had 
 either abandoned the Church altogether, or had neglected 
 the Sacraments of the Church from 2 to 50 years. Many 
 of these would never have returned to God had it not been 
 for the missions, for several acknowledged this, saying: 
 'Father, had it not been for the missions I would have 
 been damned, for I had solemnly resolved never to go to 
 Confession, but your strong and paternal appeals to our 
 
The Qall for ^Missionaries 217 
 
 hearts softened me and I cannot resist any longer/ I am 
 (and so is Father Weninger) accused of appealing too 
 much to the heart, and that consequently the good results 
 will not be permanent. Still, several pastors and some 
 Bishops write to me that the fervor after the missions, 
 even two years after their termination, is still fresh and 
 persevering. Many a time infidels have come through 
 curiosity, and before the end of the sermon, they were 
 seen bathed in tears, hiding their faces, the people aston- 
 ished that such hard cases (as they call them here) should 
 ever be moved to tears or to repentance. Of this number 
 of communicants, I presume that 10,000 had made sac- 
 rilegious Confessions and Communions for years. Some 
 of them had received the Last Sacraments sacrilegiously. 
 
 Since I wrote to your Reverence we have had 260 con- 
 verts from Protestantism to our holy religion, many of 
 these being fathers and mothers of families, and there is 
 every hope that their children will be brought to the 
 Catholic faith. Among these converts there were many 
 persons of high standing in society. One of these was, and 
 is, a judge of the United States courts, another, a Protes- 
 tant preacher of great talent and of great renown, who 
 are now most edifying Catholics. On one occasion I had 
 six Protestant preachers and a Protestant Bishop in my 
 audience. I challenged them to contradict what I proved, 
 and said that they dared not, because they knew that they 
 were leading the people astray. The Protestants called 
 upon the most learned among them to contradict me, but 
 he answered that my arguments were convincing. He 
 preached his farewell address to his Protestant congrega- 
 tion in a few days and became an edifying member of our 
 holy Church. 
 
 Secret Societies. Many have abandoned these altogether. 
 In many places the secret societies have been broken up, 
 not without a great struggle against worldly interest and 
 a most violent war with human respect. 
 
 There is perhaps no country in the world where mis- 
 sions are more necessary and where they do more good 
 than this country. The demands on us for missions are very 
 great. I hoped that Father Visitor would have been able 
 to do more for the missions, but he perhaps cannot. We 
 
21 8 ^Arnold T)amen> SJ. 
 
 are three Fathers now for the missions, Fathers Smarius, 
 Tschieder and myself; but as Father Provincial allows 
 only two Fathers for the Chicago Residence, one of the 
 missionaries is always to stay at home in Chicago ; for two 
 Fathers cannot possibly do the work of our church here. 
 We have in our church in Chicago about 35,000 Com- 
 munions per year, about 600 baptisms, some 40 converts, 
 a great many sick-calls, two sermons every Sunday, and 
 a catechetical instruction, also attending to the convent of 
 the Sacred Heart. These good ladies render immense serv- 
 ices to our church. They teach the parochial school of the 
 girls, which otherwise would cost us 1,000 dollars per 
 year, and they do it for nothing, besides rendering many 
 other services to our church. Through their instrumen- 
 tality I have gotten at least $10,000 for our church. It 
 would therefore be a great injustice were we not to give 
 them spiritual help, Confession, instructions, Mass, etc. 
 I am glad that Father Visitor has decided that those Re- 
 ligious who are in the parish, should be assisted by us 
 spiritually, and if it were not for receiving our spiritual 
 help, they would nave to abandon their establishment in 
 Chicago. Therefore, my dear Father, you see very well 
 that two Fathers cannot do all this work. In our parochial 
 school we have 400 boys and 300 girls. The number is 
 constantly increasing. Three hired teachers and two 
 Brothers conduct the boys' school, six Ladies of the 
 Sacred Heart teach the girls. 
 
 We have built a large house, containing 26 rooms. It is 
 nearly completed, and nearly paid for. I have done this 
 at the urging of Father Provincial. Father Visitor says 
 that he had disapproved of its being built, but I did not 
 know anything of this and Father Provincial says it is a 
 felix culpa, for it was very necessary. Our building was 
 very uncomfortable. Now our missionaries will have a 
 comfortable home. Chicago is the center of sixteen dio- 
 ceses in which we give missions. Other dioceses apply 
 sometimes for missions. 
 
 Frequently the clergy of these dioceses apply to us to 
 make a private retreat with us. We now have rooms to 
 satisfy their pious desire, but we have no one to give them 
 the Exercises. Here, my Reverend dear Father, comes a 
 
The Qall for {Missionaries 219 
 
 petition ; for they say that I am a great beggar, and I must 
 keep up my reputation and beg something of my good 
 Father General. Could your Reverence not induce Father 
 Provincial to give us a Father for the missions, so that 
 we could go out bini et bini, and another Father to help 
 the Fathers of this residence and at the same time give 
 the Exercises to the diocesan clergy, who apply to make a 
 retreat? Oh, my dear Father, you would be instrumental 
 in converting America. 
 
 October 25th. As you perceive, I commenced this letter 
 a month ago. Since that time we have given the Spiritual 
 Exercises to the clergy of two dioceses, and two missions 
 in which we have had 46 converts from Protestantism to 
 our holy Church. We have now applications for missions 
 enough to keep us busy for two years to come. Fathers 
 Smarius and Tschieder go together, I go by myself, which 
 I dislike very much. There is a Father in St. Louis who 
 has only three pupils in his class, who would do admirably 
 well for the missions, namely Father Koenig, a Hollander, 
 but who speaks English very well, who is full of zeal, and 
 preaches excellently. Could your Paternity not appoint 
 him for the missions? He is thirsting after this favor. 
 Do, my dear Father, do something for our missions in 
 America, and give us Father Koenig as a companion. I 
 will train him for the missions. Now being alone, I have 
 to preach every day three times, and be in the confessional 
 from 6 o'clock in the morning till 11 o'clock at night, 
 which is too much to be kept up long. 
 
 Father Smarius is doing very well as a missionary, he 
 is a powerful preacher, and has great facility, he is al- 
 ways ready, and assiduous in the confessional and is 
 truly a spiritual man. I am very much pleased with him. 
 Hoping that your Paternity will give our petition a favor- 
 able consideration and recommending myself and co- 
 laborers to your Holy Sacrifices and prayers, I am 
 
 Your most obedient son, 
 
 A. Damen, S.J. 
 
 It does not appear that this request for more mis- 
 sionaries was immediately successful. Damen was not 
 
'2 2 a ^Arnold ID amen, SJ. 
 
 discouraged, however. He continued to present the case 
 for the missions. He took up Weninger's intense, if 
 somewhat temperamental, pleas for help, and turned 
 them into sonorous sermons that rolled across to the 
 General in his letters, opening up the situation with 
 businesslike facts and carrying it through with a char- 
 acteristic energy and fervor difficult to resist. Evidently 
 the General was touched by the latest letter. He an- 
 swered Damen on December 14, 1861 : 
 
 Rightly does your Reverence consider the work of the 
 missions as among the primary works of our Institute and 
 highly deserving of all our solicitude. I have already re- 
 peatedly recommended the Superiors and will recommend 
 them afresh, to promote missions of this sort and Spiritual 
 Exercises to the public. 
 
 For the rest, it is clear to me that you cannot, for any 
 length of time, be equal to so great a weight of labor and 
 that for this reason companions ought to be assigned to* 
 you. I have recommended, and I will continue to recom- 
 mend, that they lend you assistance, if by any manner of 
 means it can be done. 
 
 In the spring of 1862, Damen writes again to Father 
 Beckx, this time not only asking for missionaries, but 
 suggesting also an expansion of parish and college 
 work in the diocese of Cleveland : 
 
 Chicago, April 23, 1862. 
 Very Reverend dear Father General: 
 
 As I have promised Rt. Rev. Bishop Rappe of the dio- 
 cese of Cleveland, Ohio, that I would write to your 
 Paternity on the subject of getting some of our Fathers 
 for his diocese, and as I have but little time, your Pa- 
 ternity will please excuse me for writing in English. 
 
 I have given a mission in the Cathedral of Cleveland, 
 and on that occasion Bishop Rappe told me that he de- 
 sired very much to have some of our Fathers in his 
 diocese. He offers us the choice of any city in his diocese. 
 
The Qall for {Missionaries ill 
 
 and later, when we shall have the subjects, we could open 
 a college. 
 
 The city of Toledo is the one that I would recommend. 
 It is a rapidly growing city, on the shores of Lake Erie, 
 has several railroads, and will become a very large city. 
 There are now in Toledo two good churches, one Eng- 
 lish and one German, and they are building another Eng- 
 lish church. There is a very comfortable and elegant resi- 
 dence adjoining this church. This property the Bishop 
 offers us in fee simple. 
 
 I think, Very Reverend dear Father, that this is a very 
 fine opportunity and that we should try to accept the 
 Bishop's offer. It will require only three or four Fathers 
 to attend the churches, and would it not be far better to 
 give up some of our small churches in Missouri, in coun- 
 try places, where there is no prospect for the Society, 
 where they cannot live in community? I allude to the 
 German churches which we have about Washington, 
 Missouri. 
 
 I have repeatedly petitioned Very Reverend Father 
 Visitor and Provincial to assign to Father Smarius and 
 to myself a companion for the missions, but we have 
 gained nothing as yet. Now, Very Reverend dear Father, 
 the labor is too much for one man. We preach three or 
 four times a day, then hear Confessions from six o'clock 
 in the morning till eleven at night. This is too much to 
 be kept up for a long time. Each of us ought to have a 
 socius. Allow me to suggest the names of some Fathers 
 whom we think suitable for the missions : Fathers Coose- 
 mans, Verdin, Driscoll, Mearns, Garesche, Heilan. I think 
 that a missionary ought to be able to preach in such a 
 manner as not to bring the Society into disrepute and he 
 ought to be a prudent and exemplary man. 
 
 In about two months I will give your Paternity a re- 
 port of the fruits of our missions. I will only say now 
 that since I wrote to your Reverence last, we have had 
 about five hundred converts from Protestantism to our 
 holy religion, many of whom are persons of standing in 
 society. 
 
 Recommending myself to your Holy Sacrifices and 
 
222 ^Arnold Dametiy SJ. 
 
 prayers, I remain with great veneration, Very Reverend 
 dear Father, 
 
 Your most obedient son in Christ, 
 
 A. Damen, S.J. 
 
 Whether Father Damen realized it or not at the 
 time, his suggestion for a church and college in Toledo 
 jeopardized the success of his appeal for more mis- 
 sionaries. His plan was to transfer to Toledo the priests 
 from the country parishes in Missouri. But if this 
 were not done, and Toledo was nevertheless accepted, 
 it would necessarily mean the appointment of other 
 men for the work, thus endangering his chances for 
 more missionaries. There is hardly any doubt that he 
 did consider this. But his passion for spreading and 
 strengthening the faith made it impossible for him to 
 pass by any field where he thought the good seed might 
 be planted, and his trust in God gave him confidence 
 that anything he started would be carried through. 
 
 Both the suggestions made in his letter were fol- 
 lowed a quarter of a century later. The Missouri par- 
 ishes were given into good hands, and the church and 
 college in Toledo opened by Jesuits from Germany. But 
 his request for immediate help in the mission field was 
 not satisfactorily answered. 
 
 Meantime the work kept spreading. Requests for 
 missions began coming in from priests and Bishops in 
 such numbers that Damen and Smarius had to open a 
 waiting list, contracting to care for missions in the 
 order of their application. They endeavored as well 
 as they could, to group successive missions and thus 
 to save doubling in their tracks. Often they succeeded 
 in this, but at other times the map of their travels 
 zigzagged back and forth all over the country. Damen 
 has left very little in the way of detailed written ac- 
 counts of his movements. He never felt the urge of 
 autobiography, nor deemed that his memoirs would 
 ever prove a source of enchantment to anyone. To him 
 
'The Qall for {Missionaries 223 
 
 it was all in the day's work of the Catholic Church, and 
 its importance for the next world was all he thought 
 of. Nevertheless, we do feel now that his impression of, 
 and his comments upon, the growing young church 
 of that twenty-five years would be of distinct historical 
 advantage. He went everywhere in the country, he met 
 so many people from every walk of life, he saw things 
 so clearly and justly and he had the faculty of de- 
 scribing so plainly and directly that there is no doubt 
 at all that we have missed a great deal of inner Catho- 
 lic life that would prove intensely interesting today. 
 I think it may be safely said that no man of his day 
 understood the spiritual temper of the people of the 
 United States more intimately than did Damen. 
 
 The only discoverable records kept of his work, is 
 a plain, sequential statement of the dates and places 
 of his missions, together with a very brief account of 
 the ground covered spiritually — the number of Com- 
 munions at each mission, of the First Communions of 
 adults, of conversions to the faith and of Confirma- 
 tions, Baptisms, marriages validated. Here and there 
 a short note is added, indicating how some emergency 
 was met. It is little more than a simple bookkeeping 
 account of cash on hand. 
 
 We can see from it, however, how his work grew. 
 In the beginning it moved in circles nearer home — 
 Waukegan, De Kalb, Sycamore in Illinois; Battle 
 Creek, Grand Rapids, Marshall in Michigan ; Lacrosse, 
 Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin; Dubuque and Daven- 
 port in Iowa. Gradually it moved south, east and north. 
 Cincinnati, Toledo, Circleville in Ohio; Louisville, 
 Newport in Kentucky; Missouri and Indiana came in 
 and then a number of missions in Philadelphia. Canada 
 enters with Ottawa, London and Toronto, and then a 
 long stay, from January to November, in New York, 
 Brooklyn, New Haven and Jersey City. 
 
 The presence of Father Smarius on the missions 
 
224 ^Arnold T>amen y S.J. 
 
 was only a temporary relief. The calls for missions be- 
 came so numerous that the two men could not stay 
 together. In the endeavor to cover the ground, they had 
 frequently to separate, each doing double work alone. 
 This could not last with safety to either and in the fall 
 of 1862, Fathers Van Goch and Converse were sent to 
 assist. A letter from Damen to the General gives us a 
 view of conditions a year later. 
 
 Chicago, June 12, 1863. 
 Very Reverend dear Father General: 
 
 I have intended this long time to send to your Pa- 
 ternity an account of the missions given by Father Smarius 
 and myself from September, 1861, to September, 1862, 
 but my many occupations have been the cause of this seem- 
 ing neglect. During the period mentioned we have given 
 36 missions of eight days each. Through them all the 
 wonderful grace of God has worked with us. Some 600 
 Protestants have been received into the Church, and 120 
 fallen-away Catholics returned to a membership long for- 
 gotten. We have given more than 140,000 Holy Com- 
 munions. Of these at least 40,000 were to persons who 
 had deserted the Church and the Sacraments completely 
 for periods of from ten to fifty years. Among them, one 
 hundred, belonging to various secret societies, left these 
 and returned as faithful sons of the Church. 
 
 Indeed, the fruit of our work surpassed all our expec- 
 tations. The eagerness of the people to hear the word of 
 God is most encouraging. They leave behind them all their 
 work, they come from as far distant as thirty miles, and 
 wait long hours during the night for their chance to go to 
 Confession. Hardened sinners of whom their pastors had 
 long despaired are seen shedding tears as they return to 
 the Father of mercy and again take up the service of God. 
 Everywhere we have established sodalities and confra- 
 ternities that the fruit of the missions may be lasting. 
 Many thousands have received the scapular. 
 
 The Bishops and the priests console us by telling us 
 how the seed sown during the missions continues to bear 
 rich harvests. After the missions, they say, many Protes- 
 
The Qall for (Missionaries 22 5 
 
 tants are converted through the light they saw at mission 
 time and through the consequent dispersal of their preju- 
 dices. After reading Catholic mission books they finally 
 came to be numbered in the flock of the Good Shepherd. 
 Among these are to be found persons of high social 
 standing. 
 
 But the work is hard, and few are to be found whose 
 strength is sufficient to preach strongly three or four times 
 a day and to hear Confessions from early morning into 
 the middle of the night. Then there are visits from 
 Protestants, infidels, with objections to be answered and 
 difficulties to be solved. This alone occupies two hours 
 after dinner every day. 
 
 All these together are too much for one man. The work 
 should be divided. Each of us ought to have a com- 
 panion. This has been finally done. Last year Reverend 
 Father Coosemans gave as each a companion. 
 
 As to our Chicago establishment: Our location is very 
 convenient for travel, a central point in the United States, 
 whence railroads branch out to all the states. 
 
 All the debt contracted for building our missionary 
 home has been paid. The interest on the church, also, and 
 the debt itself diminished to $5,000. The parish is pros- 
 pering under the care of four Fathers, who work most 
 faithfully bringing an admirable increase in the piety of 
 the faithful. We have a school of 600 boys which was 
 begun by Brother Thomas O'Neil with five lay teachers ; 
 another school for 400 girls under the care of the Nuns 
 of the Sacred Heart. Both schools are flourishing. Our 
 Community is animated with a good religious spirit. The 
 rules are well observed as well as human frailty will allow 
 and all are faithful in the performance of their spiritual 
 exercises and indefatigable in laboring for the greater 
 glory of God and the salvation of souls. 
 
 We are already conducting many retreats for the priests 
 of various dioceses every year. During August, 1862, I 
 gave the Spiritual Exercises to the priests of the diocese 
 of Louisville, Ky. The Reverend Bishop and twenty-five 
 priests were present and all made the retreat with the 
 deepest recollection and fervor. Silence was observed per^ 
 fectly. I gave another to the priests of Alton, 111. The 
 
226 ^Arnold T)amen y S.J. 
 
 Bishop with 65 priests made this retreat, which was 
 blessed with much fruit. At the same time Father Smarius 
 gave the Exercises to the priests of the diocese of Vin- 
 cennes and Milwaukee. There, too, the desired results 
 were obtained. 
 
 We are still at the work of the missions. Father Con- 
 verse was appointed to go with Father Smarius, and 
 Father Van Goch with me. The latter has proved satis- 
 factory, though he is not robust, and I fear he may not be 
 able to stand this work. As to Father Converse, experi- 
 ence has shown us that he has not the qualities necessary 
 for a missionary. He is unable to preach extempore and 
 his memory is not reliable. At present he is staying in 
 Chicago, helping in the parish. 
 
 As yet Father Smarius has not been given another asso- 
 ciate. I grieve that Superiors cannot do more for the work 
 of the missions. In our colleges there are many Fathers 
 who would make excellent missionaries. The Rectors seem 
 to think that they need them. And yet how wonderful is 
 the fruit of the missions: so many sacrilegious Com- 
 munions repaired, so many marriages validated, so many 
 souls freed from the fetters of Satan, so much hatred 
 destroyed; parents instructed in the education of their 
 children for God and the Church ; thousands of the faith- 
 ful, knowing scarcely the rudiments of their faith, waver- 
 ing in religious practice, ready to embrace heresy, or 
 drifting to infidelity, now revived by the Holy Spirit 
 through the missions and afterward prepared to pour their 
 very blood for the Catholic faith. 
 
 There are many apostasies from the Church, principally 
 because of the lack of instruction. They have been away 
 from the Church and her priests for years ; they grow up 
 without knowing their religious duties, live among heretics 
 and infidels who calumniate and ridicule the Church con- 
 stantly, so that they finally blush to be known as Catholics 
 and join non-Catholic churches. And although the Irish 
 do not openly profess Protestantism, still their children 
 perish out of the fold. 
 
 Would that your Reverence could see and hear these 
 after a mission ! They openly glory in the religion of Jesus 
 
"The C a M for Missionaries 22 J 
 
 crucified. Their hearts are filled with spiritual joy because 
 they are the sons of the holy Church. 
 
 I assert confidently that if you realized the needs of 
 religion in this country, and at the same time saw what 
 can be done by the work of the missions and how little 
 is accomplished in the colleges, you would undoubtedly 
 command that at least six Fathers be put on the missions. 
 But I grieve most bitterly because Father Provincial now 
 tells us that in the future Father Smarius and perhaps I 
 myself will be deprived of a companion. 
 
 Therefore I beg your Reverence to look over the cata- 
 logue and to see how many Fathers are occupied in the 
 colleges, some of them professors with but three or four 
 pupils in their classes. All this I have mentioned to Father 
 Provincial but without any hope of bettering matters. The 
 Rectors of the colleges are with Father Provincial and 
 the Consultors of the Province. They know nothing of 
 the missions from experience. They never have been exer- 
 cised in the functions of the sacred ministry, and as a 
 result, all our expostulations have no weight with them. 
 Demand, therefore, I implore your Reverence, that a suit- 
 able remedy be applied to this great evil as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 A feature of our work that I must mention is that in 
 every mission we take up controverted questions on such 
 subjects as Confession, Transubstantiation, the Catholic 
 Church the only true Church, Purgatory and other popu- 
 lar objections against our religion. Sometimes this lasts 
 for two or even three hours. And though the greater part 
 of the audience are standing, the crowds being so great, 
 nevertheless such is their avidity to hear the doctrines of 
 the Church, that they are accustomed to say they would 
 willingly listen throughout the entire night. 
 
 In the larger parishes our missions go on for sixteen 
 or seventeen days; in smaller places, eight to ten days. 
 Besides the many Protestants we receive into the Church 
 during the mission, 600 in the past year, we sow the seed 
 for conversions that follow the missions. Many Protes- 
 tants become Catholics after the departure of the mis- 
 sionaries. For after hearing our controversial talks, they 
 obtain Catholic books recommended by us, and thus be- 
 
228 ^Arnold T>amen i SJ. 
 
 come convinced of the truth and join the Church. We have 
 established confraternities of the Sacred Heart and of the 
 Scapular of Mount Carmel in every place where there 
 was probability that they would be permanent. 
 Your obedient son, 
 
 A. Damen, S.J. 
 
 A year later Damen writes again to the General on 
 the subject of the missions: 
 
 Chicago, August 22, 1864. 
 Very Reverend Father: 
 
 As it is impossible to give missions during the summer 
 in this country, when the smaller churches particularly 
 are filled to suffocation, I have returned to our residence. 
 In the meantime I thought I would write to your Rev- 
 erence telling you of our missions during the past nine 
 months. 
 
 During this period we gave forty missions, Father 
 Smarius, with his companion conducting eighteen and I 
 with my companion, twenty-two. In all these missions we 
 heard about 100,000 Confessions and distributed as many 
 Communions. These numbers are less this year than last, 
 because we visited smaller states and districts. 500 non- 
 Catholics were baptized and received into the Church, 
 and very many Catholics drifting on the verge of apostasy 
 were led back to the true Shepherd. It is impossible to 
 say how many adult Catholics, 30, 40, or 50 years old 
 received the Sacraments of Baptism and Matrimony. At 
 the time they were not sufficiently instructed for their 
 First Communion. Hundreds of wandering lost sheep 
 returned to the way of peace, and f alien-away girls were 
 brought back to a better life. 
 
 In all these places the frequentation of the Sacraments 
 has been firmly established. The Bishops and clergy are 
 highly satisfied with our efforts and they marvel exceed- 
 ingly at the success of the missions. 
 
 So you see, Very Reverend Father, much has been 
 accomplished for the glory of God and the salvation of 
 souls. The Spiritual Exercises were given to the priests 
 
'The Qall for Missionaries 229 
 
 of three dioceses with much fruit and with great conso- 
 lation to the Bishops. 
 
 But, alas, Father Provincial has now informed me that 
 next year only two Fathers will be occupied on the mis- 
 sions, myself and one companion. Now, so many Bishops 
 and priests have asked for missions that we cannot give 
 them in two years even if we were four missionaries. 
 Consequently I must refuse very many. 
 
 In truth, never did our Province undertake anything 
 which promises more for the glory of God and the salva- 
 tion of souls. And now all this is, it seems, abandoned. 
 During the past two years there were four of us, going 
 two by two. Now there will be but two of us. Whenever 
 it seems convenient to any of Ours to employ one or the 
 other missionary in a college, they urge this on the Pro- 
 vincial in season and out of season until he yields, forget- 
 ful of the great harvest of the missions and the sterility 
 in the colleges. So I earnestly beseech your Paternity to 
 write Father Provincial, so that should necessity force 
 him to take some Father from the missions, he shall try 
 to put some other in his place. . . . 
 
 With great reverence I humbly commend myself and 
 the missions to the Holy Sacrifices and prayers of your 
 Paternity. 
 
 Your most obedient son in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus 
 and Mary, 
 
 A. Damen, SJ. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE CIRCLE WIDENS 
 
 DAMEN'S vehement calls for reinforcements in 
 the mission field might appear exaggerated, did 
 they not resemble in a singular manner the cry of St. 
 Francis Xavier from India three hundred and twenty 
 years before. 
 
 There is now in these parts [wrote Xavier in 1543 
 to the Jesuits at Rome], a very large number of persons 
 who have only one reason for not becoming Christians, 
 and that is that there is no one to make them Christians. 
 It often comes into my head to go round all the Univer- 
 sities of Europe crying out like a madman, and saying 
 to all the learned men there whose learning is so much 
 greater than their charity, 'Ah, what a multitude of souls 
 is through your fault shut out of heaven and fallen into 
 hell !' Would to God that these men who labor so much 
 in gaining knowledge would give as much thought to the 
 account they must one day give to God of the use they 
 have made of their learning and the talents entrusted to 
 them. . . . They labor night and day in acquiring knowl- 
 edge, and they are very diligent indeed in understanding 
 the subjects which they study; but if they would spend 
 as much time and be as diligent in teaching the ignorant 
 the things necessary to salvation, they would be far better 
 prepared to give an account of themselves to Our Lord 
 when He shall say to them: 'Give an account of thy 
 stewardship/ ... I declare to God that I had almost 
 made up my mind, since I could not return to Europe 
 myself, to write to the University of Paris, and to show 
 them how many thousands of infidels might be made 
 Christians without trouble, if we had only men here who 
 
 230 
 
The Circle Widens 231 
 
 would seek, not their own advantage, but the things of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 These letters of Xavier and of Damen do not imply 
 that either was opposed to college education. In other 
 letters Xavier asked for missionaries of special train- 
 ing to meet the bonzes of Japan. And Damen was the 
 founder and builder of the first permanent Catholic 
 college in the Northwest. But both men viewed the 
 whole broad field of the Church from a practical stand- 
 point and, though more than three centuries apart, both 
 arrived independently at the same conclusion. They be- 
 lieved that there was a lack of balance between the theo- 
 retical and the practical in the work of saving souls, 
 and as men who realized a situation, they spoke out 
 strongly to men who, they believed, did not realize it. 
 
 Father Smarius, also, as soon as he stepped into the 
 mission zone, saw, like Damen, the need of reinforce- 
 ments in this section of the Church's work. Writing 
 for the Precis Historique, a Belgian magazine, he 
 says : 
 
 The continual inpouring of Catholic immigrants from 
 almost all the countries of Europe, especially from Ire- 
 land and Germany, and the lack of priests in proportion 
 to this immigration, have demonstrated the importance 
 and the necessity of these missions. Thousands of Catho- 
 lics, principally in the larger cities, live in complete negli- 
 gence of their Christian duties and of the Sacraments. 
 To recall them to their obligations requires extraor- 
 dinary means. The advertising of the mission, made and 
 repeated many times before the opening day, arouses 
 curiosity and attracts souls that still have any trace of 
 religion left in them. The result is the return of many a 
 prodigal son, and notable victories over rooted vices and 
 bad habits. 
 
 The same need exists, relatively, in the smaller towns 
 and villages. The working classes and the farmers are 
 often at a great distance from the little chapels which the 
 zeal of priests and the generosity of our poor have built 
 
232 ^Arnold T>amen> SJ. 
 
 in the interior of our states. And these farmers and 
 laborers have only from time to time the spiritual nour- 
 ishment necessary to keep alive the spirit of religion, 
 which like the lamp, is extinguished for lack of the saving 
 oil — instruction and the Sacraments. 
 
 The mission revives the faith among them, reawakens 
 interest for their souls' salvation and the salvation of 
 their children. To give you convincing proof of this, let 
 me state that in nearly all our missions we find hundreds 
 of men and women who call themselves Catholics, and yet 
 who have not been to Confession for from ten to forty 
 years. It can be said without exaggeration that a fifth part 
 of the Catholics who attend our missions are in this de- 
 plorable state. 
 
 Wherever Damen and Smarius gave their missions, 
 the amazement that arose among even intelligent 
 churchmen at the results effected, indicates how wide- 
 spread was this lack of realization of the power of the 
 missions over souls. A mission in the Cathedral of 
 Cincinnati, in 1863, is described by Father John 
 Schultz, the Rector of St. Xavier's College, as follows : 
 
 The mission at the Cathedral is succeeding marvelously. 
 Every evening, church and basement are filled with an 
 immense audience. Father Smarius preaches in the church 
 and Father Damen in the basement at the same time, 
 while two large chapels are filled with persons, some of 
 them from 50 to 60 years old, who are preparing for their 
 First Communion and Confirmation. From ten to twelve 
 priests are employed in hearing Confessions. The Arch- 
 bishop and the members of his household appear to be 
 in admiration of it. 
 
 The mission will continue up to next Sunday and then, 
 after Father Damen's departure for Illinois, Father 
 Smarius will give instructions in dogma for a few days 
 longer. Before coming to Cincinnati, Father Smarius gave 
 missions in the towns of Bishop Miege's Vicariate. At 
 Leavenworth alone, besides the conversion of a great 
 number of Catholics who had not been to the Sacraments 
 
The Qwcle Widens 233 
 
 for many years, 30 Protestants received baptism, either 
 during the mission, or a few days later. 
 
 It is inconceivable, Very Reverend Father, what im- 
 mense good is wrought in this country by means of mis- 
 sions and to what extent these missions are necessary. 
 Oh, that we had a larger number of capable subjects who 
 could be employed in this sacred ministry ! 
 
 In New York, in 1863, Damen and Smarius gave a 
 three weeks' mission in St. Francis Xavier's Church, 
 in which twenty-two confessors were constantly en- 
 gaged in hearing Confessions and seventy converts 
 were made. This mission was, John Gilmary Shea 
 wrote to Father De Smet, 'the most notable ever 
 preached in this city.' We have a description of the 
 close of this mission, written for the Precis Historique 
 by one of the priests who assisted in it. He says : 
 
 Our mission finished yesterday. I scarcely venture to 
 give you a description of it, I have so many things to tell 
 you. The last instruction had to be given in three differ- 
 ent places at the same time. Father Smarius preached in 
 the church, to the men and women, Father Damen in the 
 large college hall to men only, and Father O'Reilly in the 
 basement of the church to women only. Each of the three 
 orators was greeted with the sight of throngs of people 
 crowding in, all eager to hear him. In order that the stu- 
 dent galleries might be thrown open to the public, the stu- 
 dents were placed in the sanctuary. The stage from which 
 Father Damen preached was crowded with men standing 
 up. At the entrance to the hall, a hundred auditors, unable 
 to find room inside, were ranged along the steps of the 
 stairway. 
 
 Several controversial sermons were given in the church. 
 Protestants came in good numbers. Last Sunday, after 
 High Mass, twenty of them were baptized in presence of 
 the congregation. The first to approach the baptismal font 
 was a worthy minister. The congregation was most edified 
 by the public abjuration of four persons, who were re- 
 turning to their mother faith, after having gone over to 
 Protestantism. 
 
234 ^Arnold Damen, SJ. 
 
 On the preceding day a number were reconciled to 
 the Church. Others at the same time took up religious 
 instruction. 
 
 As to the Catholics, it is enough to say that the Con- 
 fessions began the second day of the mission, and that 
 thereafter there was no break from morning till night in 
 the crowds around the confessionals. In spite of the num- 
 ber of confessors — from fifteen to thirty every evening — 
 thousands had to go home without a chance to go to 
 Confession. The people came from every corner of the 
 city and from nearby towns. Last Sunday evening the 
 street in front of the church was so blocked with the 
 crowds that it was impossible to make one's way through. 
 * Why haven't the Fathers a bigger church ?' was the ques- 
 tion heard on all sides. 
 
 I know of persons from remote quarters of the city 
 who took lodgings in the vicinity so as to be in time for 
 the mission. Today is the close of the triduum (follow- 
 ing the close of the mission) in honor of the Japanese 
 martyrs. Confessions continue as numerous as ever. I 
 don't know when they will stop. Let us bless God for all 
 the good done here. 
 
 The clergy of New York were most grateful for 
 what Damen did for their people and they were not 
 willing to let him go. They recalled him for more and 
 yet more missions. Every priest in the diocese wished 
 Damen to come to his parish and bring to his flock 
 the blessings all had seen and heard so much about. 
 The consequence was that for many years, until a mis- 
 sion band was established among the Jesuits exclusively 
 for that section, Damen gave a part of his time to mis- 
 sions in the East. 
 
 Accordingly we come upon such entries as the fol- 
 lowing, which he kept in a little diary recording the 
 barest outlines of the work : 
 
 Holy Innocents, N. Y. — Communions, 12,300; First 
 Communion of adults, 122; Conversions 24. 
 
 St. Mary's, Brooklyn — Communions, 12,400; First 
 
^the Qircle Widens 23$ 
 
 Communion of adults, 350 ; Conversions, 41 ; Confirma- 
 tions, 676. 
 
 St. Charles Borromeo, Philadelphia — Communions, 
 15,000; First Communion of adults, 150; Conversions, 
 32; Confirmations, 356. 
 
 St. Vincent's, Scranton — Communions, 10,000; First 
 Communion of adults, 200; Conversions, 19; Confirma- 
 tions, 600 boys, 400 adults. 
 
 St. Francis, Boston — Communions, 8,500; First Com- 
 munion of adults, 159; Conversions, 8. 
 
 St. Michael's, Jersey City — Communions, 7,000; First 
 Communion of adults, 60; Conversions, 10. 
 
 St. Patrick's Cathedral, N. Y. — Communions, 10,000; 
 First Communion of adults, 230; Conversions, 25; Con- 
 firmations, 550 adults. 
 
 These are only excerpts from a long list of towns 
 and cities in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
 Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland. Details beyond 
 the statistics above mentioned are rarely given, except 
 such notes as 'Many marriages revalidated' ; 'A Sodal- 
 ity was begun'; 'A Temperance Society was erected'; 
 'Church and hall both needed for the Exercises.' We 
 derive an occasional sidelight from other sources of 
 the impression Damen's work was producing. After a 
 mission in New York in 1865, with twelve thousand 
 .Communions, ninety-seven converts and five hundred 
 adult First Communions, Father Coosemans writes to 
 Father Beckx: 'Father Damen attributes this extraor- 
 dinary success to the prayers of the little orphans who 
 implored without ceasing the Lord's clemency on these 
 poor sinners, while the Brothers were instructing the 
 men and the Sisters the women so as to prepare them 
 to receive the Sacraments worthily.' 
 
 Again, after a mission reported from Albany in the 
 same year, with fourteen thousand Communions, forty- 
 one converts, and four to five hundred First Commun- 
 ions of adults, Coosemans writes to the General : 'May 
 God in His goodness preserve Father Damen for many 
 
236 ^Arnold T)amen> S.J. 
 
 years to come, and deliver him from the indispositions 
 to which he is subject from time to time.' 
 
 This rich harvest, continuing steadily from month 
 to month, began to attract attention all over the coun- 
 try. Bishops in various dioceses asked for the mis- 
 sionaries. Bishop Elder, among others, begged Father 
 Coosemans to send them to him for Natchez and 
 Vicksburg. 'Un fortunately/ Father Coosemans writes 
 of this appeal, 'the missionaries cannot fulfill his re- 
 quest, as I have no men free to send them. Oh, that we 
 had a greater number of men, so as to respond to all 
 the requests/ 
 
 Circumstances gradually shaped themselves so that 
 Damen finally received part of the help he had been 
 asking for during several years. Additions were gradu- 
 ally made to his band until in 1874 he had six or seven 
 assistants, who gave at least part of their time to the 
 very large missions. Father Florentine Boudreaux was 
 the first after Fathers Van Goch and Converse to take 
 up the work. In 1874, at St. Gabriel's Church, N. Y., 
 Father Damen was assisted by Fathers Van Goch, 
 Zealand, Masselis, Niederkorn, Putten and Koopmans. 
 In the mid-seventies Fathers Hillman and Henry 
 Bronsgeest entered the field. A remarkable feature of 
 this group was that all, save one, were Hollanders who 
 had learned to preach in good English, as Damen and 
 Smarius before them. 
 
 Still the calls kept coming in, from East and West. 
 And in 1876, two bands of missionaries were organized 
 to cover the spreading territory. Father Garraghan, in 
 his History of the Missouri Province, gives us an out- 
 line of one of the drives made simultaneously in differ- 
 ent directions by the two bands of missionaries. 
 
 Six Fathers, led by Damen, and two or three under 
 Father Coghlan, moved through the Middle West, the 
 East and the South. The first band, composed of Fathers 
 Damen, Zealand, Niederkorn, Bronsgeest, Hillman, Mas- 
 
7 he Qircle Widens 237 
 
 selis and Condon, gave missions in Edina, Missouri, then 
 in Chicago, then went on to Brooklyn for three missions, 
 besides preaching and lecturing in many churches in and 
 around the city. Next they gave a mission at Rockaway, 
 L. I., afterward going aboard the war vessels at the Navy 
 Yard to hear the Confessions of the marines, sailors and 
 recruits ; then to Philadelphia and Boston, and from there 
 south to New Orleans, where they found the piety of the 
 people not so vigorous as in the North, though the Arch- 
 bishop thought a great work was done there; to Mobile, 
 Pensacola, back to Chicago, and out to Parsons, Kansas; 
 back east again to Philadelphia, to Lynn, Massachusetts, 
 and a two-weeks mission in Chicago brought this tour to 
 a close, with 71,545 Communions, 276 Converts, 906 First 
 Communions of adults and 1,782 Confirmations. 
 
 The second band, under Father Coghlan, held princi- 
 pally to the West — Morris, 111., St. Mary's Landing, Mo., 
 Detroit, Omaha, Denver, Boulder, Georgetown, Central 
 City, Pueblo, shifted to Troy, N. Y., Shamokin, Pa., 
 Davenport, la., East St. Louis, Bunker Hill, 111., Beth- 
 alto, Gillespie, Litchfield, Oliphant, Pa., Pleasant Valley, 
 Pa., Rochelle, 111., with 44,720 Communions, 208 con- 
 verts, 555 First Communions of Adults, 274 Confirma- 
 tions. 
 
 It was during the mission given by Damen in New 
 Orleans, February, 1877, that the famous Confederate 
 General Longstreet entered the Church. 
 
 The large numbers of First Communions of adults 
 was found by the missionaries to be caused principally 
 by the neglect of parents to co-operate with the pastors 
 in sending their children to be instructed. The lack of 
 parish schools at that time was likewise a severe handi- 
 cap to anything like the solid teaching needed by the 
 children in the foundation truths of their faith, while 
 the large number of transients made it impossible for 
 the parish priests of that day to prevent strays from a 
 flock that kept slipping away from their hands. 
 
 Every mission proved to be a kind of round-up for 
 hundreds of these strays and the missionaries consid- 
 
238 ^Arnold Teamen, SJ. 
 
 ered this an essential of their work. For many of these 
 wanderers were heads of families and, more often 
 than not, their neglected children came into the Church 
 with the parents. So that the First Communion or the 
 Confirmation of an adult often meant the return to 
 the fold of an entire household. 
 
 For the instruction of converts a special class was 
 organized and faithfully taught during the whole time 
 the mission lasted. Those who were not yet fully pre- 
 pared by the time the mission ended, were left in the 
 care of the pastor of the church, who was to continue 
 the class. Hours were assigned, too, for persons beset 
 by particular doubts and difficulties. Conferences were 
 arranged for these individually. 
 
 Some of these conferences developed an amusing 
 side. During a mission in Indianapolis a prominent 
 judge of the city attended the sermons and became con- 
 vinced that he should join the Church. He sought an 
 interview with Father Damen and showed so intelligent 
 an appreciation of what the mission had thus far taught 
 him that Damen judged him almost sufficiently in- 
 structed for baptism. But in order to see whether he 
 had grasped all the fundamentals of the faith, Damen 
 asked him some questions. 
 
 'Well, Judge, you know that there is but one God?' 
 
 'Yes, Father/ 
 
 'And how many Persons are there in God, Judge?' 
 
 'Well, Father/ after a long pause, 'I suppose there 
 are a good many persons in God/ 
 
 'No, Judge, there are only three Persons in God/ 
 
 'Well,' said the Judge, reaching for his hat, 'if that's 
 the case, I'm afraid there is no chance for me/ 
 
 Damen had stepped upon a soft spot in the Judge's 
 theology. He took the Judge back to the Catechism and 
 in due time received him into the Church. 
 
 The public reception of converts during the mission 
 is not a custom followed by present-day missionaries. 
 
The Circle Widens 239 
 
 The pastor now takes up the work of instruction where 
 the missionary leaves off. The two or three weeks of 
 intensive preparation is extended to months, and the 
 convert must know the whole Catechism thoroughly. 
 In those days, however, the lack of priests was an 
 insuperable obstacle to this, and the missionaries were 
 compelled to make up for it in intensive teaching. That 
 they succeeded admirably in this is evidenced from re- 
 cent study of the leakage problem among Catholics in 
 the United States, which reveals the fact that the ma- 
 jority of foreign-born Catholics have remained faithful 
 to the Church. To this result the missionaries and their 
 teaching contributed a full share, and the missions 
 must be regarded as a strong cementing power in the 
 Catholic Church in the United States. 
 
 Damen's controversial sermons played a large part 
 in his numerous conversions. He gave two of these 
 either during or immediately after most of his missions. 
 Four of them were printed, namely, The Catholic 
 Church and the Bible, Confession, The Real Pres- 
 ence, and Answers to Popular Objections against the 
 Catholic Church. Clear, direct, forcible in style, they 
 are just the kind of reading that will hold the average 
 man's attention, not so easy a task. Anyone who begins 
 one of Damen's talks, will read it through. More than 
 a hundred thousand of these were sold during Damen's 
 time and they are still in demand. 
 
 Damen's missions were thus nothing like slap-dash 
 affairs, rallies for 'getting religion' where frothy en- 
 thusiasm is taken as the evidence of spiritual depth. 
 His work was as thorough and complete in detail as it 
 was possible to be in the two or three weeks he gave to 
 each parish. The mission was not a service in the morn- 
 ing, and another service in the evening. It was an all 
 day and every day labor and he was in the thick of it 
 from beginning to end. In fact, he did not consider 
 the preaching of the mission to be his main work, but 
 
240 Arnold Ttamen, S.J. 
 
 the Confessions, the Communions, the classes and con- 
 ferences. It was therefore not general impressions he 
 aimed at, but the concrete, definite reform of each in- 
 dividual soul. Preaching by itself is not such hard 
 work. It is following up the trail to find what the 
 preaching has done that is hard. If this is absent, 
 preaching can be just so much sounding brass. An ac- 
 count written in the Woodstock Letters by Father Fred- 
 erick Garesche, who occasionally assisted in mission 
 work, gives us an idea of the daily routine of their 
 missionary life. 
 
 We commence the missionary year in September and 
 end it in June. Toward the end of August the Fathers, 
 who have been employing the interval in giving retreats 
 to religious houses, in making their own retreats or in 
 necessary relaxation, find themselves once more assem- 
 bled in Chicago. 
 
 Let us follow one of the bands to a small mission. The 
 missionaries commence their journey by the recitation of 
 the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. They arrive at their 
 destination on Saturday. Trunks are to be opened, con- 
 fessionals to be erected or ordered, for singularly enough 
 this important adjunct to the mission is the very thing 
 most generally overlooked. Finally the program of exer- 
 cises is to be written or printed and then posted at the 
 church door. 
 
 Usually this is as follows : At 5 o'clock a.m. begins the 
 first Mass, followed by a sermon, which does not last 
 longer than six o'clock, when the second missionary cele- 
 brates divine service. These early Masses are for those 
 whose duties prevent them from being present later in the 
 day. I have known the church to be filled at that hour, 
 though the weather was inclement and many had to come 
 from long distances. In no mission yet have we failed to 
 persuade the people to make this daily sacrifice of their 
 morning rest. 
 
 In one of our last missions, with the thermometer at 
 20 degrees below zero, the tramping of their feet on the 
 frozen sidewalks would arouse us a half hour before the 
 
7 he Qtrcle Widens 241 
 
 time at which we had set our alarm clocks. At 8:30 a.m. 
 the pastor celebrates Mass and immediately after this, the 
 second sermon is delivered, the attendance being about 
 the same, or even a little smaller than that of the 5 o'clock 
 Mass. In the afternoon the pastor and congregation make 
 the Way of the Cross together. In the evening at 7:30 
 the pastor recites the Rosary with the congregation, and 
 then follows the principal sermon of the day, followed by 
 Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 During this sermon, in accordance with an invitation 
 repeated for weeks together before the mission, the as- 
 sistant missionary receives in the schoolroom, or the par- 
 lor of the pastoral residence, or some other place suitable, 
 those persons over sixteen years of age who have never 
 received their First Communion. I regard this as one of 
 the greatest fruits of the mission, and decidedly the most 
 trying and difficult of all our labors. The average of such 
 cases is perhaps greater than you 'would suppose. In one 
 mission where there were 1,100 communicants, and where 
 the pastor was noted for his zealous care of his flock, 
 knowing almost everyone by name, where, too, there was 
 but little or no floating population, we unearthed about 
 twenty such cases. I should think that the average would 
 be about forty to every thousand communicants. 
 
 Every day, from two to three o'clock in the afternoon, 
 or after the evening services, non-Catholics are invited 
 to come and propose their doubts. On Tuesday we com- 
 mence the Confessions, hearing first the children who have 
 made their First Communion and are under sixteen years 
 of age. On Wednesday and all other days that remain we 
 are ready to hear Confessions from 5 o'clock a.m. until 
 10:30 at night. The only intermissions are for meals; a 
 half hour after breakfast, an hour after dinner, and an- 
 other hour, including supper, before the evening service. 
 
 Whenever the mission lasts two weeks, the first week is 
 generally for the women, the second for the men, at least 
 in regard to the evening service. Experience has taught 
 that the separation has encouraged the men wonderfully 
 and creates such an enthusiasm that ordinarily the num- 
 ber of communicants in each is about equal. Sometimes the 
 
242 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 men's Communions are even more numerous than the 
 women's. 
 
 Toward the end of the mission Father Damen usually 
 establishes the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart and 
 the Apostleship of Prayer and erects a large mission cross. 
 
 Father Damen is accustomed to give two controversial 
 lectures each week. The utility of these lectures is very 
 great, not only for Protestants, who attend in great num- 
 bers and whose prejudices are thereby much diminished, 
 but principally for Catholics, who are wonderfully 
 strengthened in their faith. 
 
 Pastors have great difficulty in reaching adults who 
 have not made their First Communion, to have them come 
 for the necessary instructions. The mission does a great 
 deal for them here. It seems to overcome their shyness. 
 They are told to come, and they do come in numbers, at 
 night, and while Father Damen is delivering his mission 
 sermon they are instructed by another missionary. So also 
 with Confirmation. In most cases the Bishop administers 
 this Sacrament after the mission, the pastors making the 
 proper announcement beforehand and inviting all who 
 have never been confirmed. But human respect often 
 keeps them back. It is only after receiving the grace of 
 the mission that they can muster courage to come to the 
 feet of the Bishop. 
 
 Although Damen gave many missions in large par- 
 ishes, yet he did not specially favor these at the ex- 
 pense of the smaller places. He listed his missions in 
 the order of application and went everywhere precisely 
 as his schedule directed. He realized then what is just 
 as acute a need today, the necessity of missions in the 
 smaller towns and settlements, where Catholics are 
 frozen in by the cold prejudice and the ignorance of 
 surrounding sects. The recent election campaign for 
 the Presidency brought this fact clearly to the surface. 
 It surprised many Catholics to see how much bigotry 
 was in the country, especially in the smaller towns. But 
 the missionaries who worked in such towns year after 
 year were perfectly familiar with it, and were not at 
 
The Circle Widens 243 
 
 all surprised. Catholics are outnumbered twenty to one 
 in these localities, and though these twenty may dis- 
 agree among themselves, they will always unite to 
 attack the Catholic faith. In many cases, that is the 
 only religion they have. Damen sought out these dan- 
 ger spots in the smaller towns, gave the full mission 
 routine as accurately and delivered his sermons as tell- 
 ingly as in the most crowded congregations. His classes 
 for converts were as carefully conducted in Jefferson- 
 ville, where he records four negroes brought into the 
 Church, as they were in New York, where he converted 
 ninety-seven in a single mission. 
 
 It will be observed that in the list of missionaries 
 mentioned as assistants to Father Damen in the mid- 
 seventies, the name of Father Smarius is missing. 
 Father Smarius died on March 1, 1870, at the age of 
 forty-seven. He was the first Jesuit to die in Chicago. 
 It was a severe blow to the missions. Smarius had ar- 
 rived at the peak of his power, and the missions had 
 just taken definite organized shape. Smarius had done 
 much to bring them to this point and his loss was felt 
 strongly by Damen, who had looked forward to long 
 years of comradeship with Smarius on the missions, 
 His name was a household word to all who had ever 
 heard him and among the younger Jesuits he gave a 
 great impetus to the desire for excellence in preaching. 
 
 The pace set by Damen and Smarius in the mission 
 field continued, however, and the wonder created by 
 their early successes gradually changed into a settled 
 appreciation of the great spiritual worth of what they 
 were doing for the Catholics of America. 
 
 In a manuscript notice of Father Damen, Father 
 Thomas Hughes, S.J., writes : 
 
 A transient visitor at Chicago, in 1875, remarked 'that 
 a letter which arrived while he was there, announced to 
 Father Rector the happy conclusion of a mission at Scran- 
 ton, with 12,000 Communions, 19 converts, 200 adult 
 
244 ^Arnold 'Damen^ SJ. 
 
 First Communions, etc., but I found it was scarcely no- 
 ticed, such items being commonplace there/ In 1879, after 
 twenty-two years of excursions from Chicago, it was 
 reckoned that Father Damen had conducted in person 208 
 missions, averaging two weeks time for each; he had 
 traveled on an average of 6,000 miles each year; he and 
 his different bands of companions together had given 
 2,800,000 Holy Communions and had made 12,000 con- 
 versions to the faith. At one church in New York, a party 
 of his missionaries, in the course of four weeks, had dis- 
 tributed no less than 42,000 Holy Communions. 
 
 We may note here that among his converts, twenty- 
 seven had been Protestant ministers. And Damen con- 
 tinued at the same rate for ten years after this time. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 FATHERS DAMEN AND SMARIUS 
 
 THE great audiences that assembled around Damen 
 and Smarius wherever they appeared were origi- 
 nally drawn by their eloquence. They heard the teach- 
 ings of the Church and the duties of their moral lives 
 presented to them in a manner which they had never 
 experienced before. The style of each of the two was 
 distinctly different. Smarius was more academic, or- 
 nate, lofty in flight, though always clear and logical 
 and driving toward the point. Damen was more popu- 
 lar, concrete, simple in language and illustration. They 
 belonged to two different schools of speaking, one of 
 which could be represented, say, by Daniel Webster, 
 the other by Abraham Lincoln. Smarius was Web- 
 sterian, though of course entirely individual in his way 
 of putting things; Damen, like Lincoln, instinctively 
 turned to the more direct and homely style. The change 
 of American taste with regard to speaking was arriving 
 at just this period and, while many of the old cam- 
 paigners still loved the rolling period and the balanced 
 and sonorous Ciceronian manner, the current of popu- 
 lar favor was getting away from the formal to the 
 familiar style. Damen and Smarius together on a mis- 
 sion appealed in turn to both preferences. 
 
 Damen seemed to think Smarius' sermons more effi- 
 cient than his own, and he always gave him the place 
 of importance in the schedule. Thus the evening ser- 
 mons, considered the key sermons of the mission, he 
 assigned to Smarius whenever he could. On occasions 
 
 245 
 
246 cArnold Domett, SJ. 
 
 when the crowds were so great that they had to be di- 
 vided, Damen always took the smaller division. 
 
 Nevertheless, as time went on, it was Damen who 
 gradually came into the foreground as the great speaker 
 to the masses. Ultimately it was seen that he could do 
 more with a congregation than could Smarius. Father 
 James O'Meara, S.J., who is one of the few persons 
 now living who heard both men at a time when he was 
 old enough to judge critically, says of them : 
 
 * Fathers Damen and Smarius made a perfect team 
 on the missions. The latter attracted crowds and won 
 prestige by his distinguished presence and his power 
 of eloquence. The former had the unction that con- 
 verted hearts/ This idea was put in another way by 
 Mr. William Onahan, who knew both speakers inti- 
 mately; 'Smarius could hold an audience/ he writes, 
 'but Damen could carry them. Smarius possessed every 
 quality of a great orator; he fascinated you. But Da- 
 men had something more than this. He took a personal 
 grasp of you. You seemed to go out to Smarius, but 
 Damen seemed to come into you/ All the evidence we 
 have tends to show that Damen could exercise a spirit- 
 ual sway over a congregation unique in his day and 
 perhaps unequaled since. 'After listening to Damen/ 
 said another who recalled his sermons, 'you didn't want 
 to think about yourself. You wanted to do something 
 about yourself and do it right away/ 
 
 St. Francis Xavier, in a letter to Father Gasper 
 Baertz, giving him instructions how to preach to the 
 people, writes the following : 
 
 In your sermons make no display of erudition or of 
 memory. . . . Let a great part of your discourse be 
 taken up with graphic descriptions of the interior condi- 
 tion and the disorder of souls in a state of sin. Let your 
 sermon set before their eyes, and let them see it plainly 
 as in a mirror ... all the deceitful designs which they 
 entertain in their souls. 
 
Fathers Ttamen and Smarius 247 
 
 The truth is, that men listen attentively to those things 
 above all which reach their inmost conscience. Sublime 
 speculations, perplexed questions, scholastic controversies 
 soar not only above the intelligence of those who are 
 creeping on the ground, but above their interest. They 
 make a deal of empty thunder and vanish without any 
 fruit. You must show men clearly to themselves if you 
 would have them hanging on the words of your mouth. 
 But to set forth what their own interior feelings are, you 
 must first know them ; and the only way to know them is 
 to be much in their company, to study them, observe them, 
 pray with them. So turn over and over again these living 
 books; it is from these you will gain everything. 
 
 Xavier wrote this out of his own experience. But 
 if he had not, and could have foreseen Damen's work, 
 he would have written these very words. Damen would 
 have suited Xavier down to the ground. During Da- 
 men's whole priestly career of building, organizing, 
 traveling, he had been much in the company of men 
 and had passed by none of his exceptional opportuni- 
 ties of studying these living books. Frbm these he 
 learned how to reveal them to themselves with a 
 startling vividness and a compelling power. When 
 Damen aroused them to themselves, they saw them- 
 selves as they believed God Himself saw them. 
 
 Smarius excelled in clear presentation of doctrine, 
 as well as ir? acute logical unmasking of error and its 
 vigorous refutation. He surrounded a question com- 
 pletely and marched upon its solution with a sustained 
 and deliberate eloquence that was often inspired. Da- 
 men's method was to cut through a position and to 
 take it by a flaming assault. We can imagine the spirit- 
 ual effect upon an audience that had listened to these 
 two men through a mission of two weeks. It was a 
 strategically perfect religious campaign. No Cath- 
 olic with a shred of faith could escape from that 
 combination. 
 
248 ^Arnold T) amen j S.J. 
 
 We have a letter of Damen to his Superior, dated 
 January 29, 1863, describing part of a mission tour 
 he was making alone in Indiana and adjoining terri- 
 tory. It is the only one of his letters I have been able 
 to discover that gives anything about his personal 
 way of conducting a mission. It is only a flashlight 
 at that, but it illuminates the manner of the man. 
 He writes: 
 
 On the 9th of October I opened a mission in Evans- 
 ville, Ind., to the English-speaking congregation, which 
 is small. The pastor thought I might have 300 Commun- 
 ions. The mission was very well attended. All seemed to 
 have given up all temporal concerns to attend to the one 
 thing necessary, so that the sermons during the day were 
 almost as well attended as those at night. I preached 
 three times a day, was in the confessional from 6 o'clock 
 in the morning until 11 and 12 o'clock at night. The 
 Protestants attended in large numbers and seemed very 
 much delighted with the sermons on the doctrines of the 
 Church. Many declared that they were convinced that 
 the Catholic Church was the only true Church and that 
 they would inform themselves by reading and visits to 
 the pastor, and join the Church later. 
 
 Six Protestants were baptized and prepared for First 
 Communion. Others were postponed, not being suffi- 
 ciently instructed. The six were married persons, and of 
 course in gaining them we gain the children. We had 600 
 Communions, revalidated several marriages, invested with 
 the scapular some four hundred persons and established 
 the Society of the Sacred Heart. Some 200 persons joined. 
 
 On the 1 6th of October the mission concluded, at night, 
 with a grand illumination and the consecration of the 
 congregation to the Immaculate Mother. Then 24 young 
 ladies, dressed in white, with long white veils and crowns 
 of flowers on their heads, standing around the altar with 
 tapers in their hands, read the renovation of the bap- 
 tismal vows in a loud voice. There was a breathless silence 
 in the church, interrupted only by the sobs of the people. 
 
 Then I made a second appeal to the people (for the 
 
Fathers T>amen and Smarius 249 
 
 ceremony commenced with the sermon on Perseverance) 
 and said: 
 
 'You have heard, my dear people, this solemn renun- 
 ciation of Satan and his works. But you are able to speak 
 for yourselves. Declare aloud before God, the blessed 
 Jesus here on the altar, his holy angels around the holy 
 tabernacle, the venerable Bishop, your good Pastor. 
 Speak out. Do you renounce the devil ?' There was a burst- 
 ing out like the roar of thunder : 
 
 'We do renounce him.' 
 
 'And do you renounce all his works, that is, all sin?' 
 
 The same answer was given. 
 
 'Who shall be your leader and guide for the future?' 
 
 All said aloud, 'Jesus forever!' 
 
 All this was said with an abundance of tears and many 
 sobs. It came to them so unexpectedly, not being pre- 
 pared for it. 
 
 Then all the congregation arose and made the profes- 
 sion of faith aloud ; after which all raised their hands to 
 heaven, promised alOud that they would live and die in 
 the Catholic Church. Then I gave the papal benediction. 
 
 The next morning at 8 o'clock we had a High Mass of 
 thanksgiving. I bade them farewell, leaving them in tears, 
 and was off in the cars to Columbus, Ind., a small place 
 where I was four days. All the Catholics went to Com- 
 munion. Some leaders of secret societies abandoned them 
 and returned to the Church. Two Protestants became 
 Catholics. Some apostates returned to the faith and many 
 Protestants acknowledged that the Catholic religion is 
 true. This place is visited but once a month. 
 
 Off I was to St. Vincent's Church, Shelby Co., where 
 I remained five days. This is a small congregation in the 
 woods of Indiana, settled by Kentuckian farmers. They 
 have Mass once a month on Sunday. All the Protestants 
 as well as the Catholics gave up their work to attend the 
 mission. All the Catholics approached the Sacraments, 
 two excepted. Many came a distance of 10 or 20 miles, 
 bringing their dinners along and remaining at the church 
 the whole day. I preached three times per day as usual 
 and gave one hour catechism. Five Protestants were re- 
 
250 ^Arnold "Dametiy S.J. 
 
 ceived into the Church and some old people received their 
 First Communion. 
 
 I regretted that I could not stay longer, for I had good 
 grounds to believe that all the Protestants would become 
 Catholics, if I had stayed 4 or 5 days longer. But my ap- 
 pointment was for Chicago, to preach the novena of the 
 Immaculate Conception. 
 
 We placed a cross 30 feet high, twelve inches square, 
 with the inscription : Mission by the Jesuit Fathers, 1862, 
 although I was the only Jesuit there. 
 
 This close up, man-to-man style of dealing with 
 people ran through all his work. It is evident in his let- 
 ters, but those who listened to his sermons still recall 
 the sense that he meant every word for them severally. 
 'I always felt/ said one, 'that he had me picked out 
 from the crowd. He was on top of me all the time/ 
 Everyone else thought the same thing. This power of 
 universal personal appeal was the final natural source 
 of Damen's effectiveness, and it showed at the same 
 time his intimate understanding of human nature. He 
 allowed nothing in the style or the manner of his ser- 
 mon to interfere with this contact he was after. He was 
 most sparing in the use of figures of speech, as if they 
 were a veil before his thought. He said right out what 
 he had to say, but with such downright intensity that 
 he needed no figures. His vocabulary was simple; his 
 sentences short, but so varied with dialogue, with rapid 
 question and answer, anecdote and humor, that they 
 never became monotonous. Even in reading the few 
 lectures he has left us one is carried along with their 
 interest. And always the sequence of his thought is so 
 plain and logical that a hand can be laid on each section 
 of its development and can gather the whole together 
 as it proceeds. His meaning is as easy to follow as 
 that of a child's penny book. 
 
 The style of Smarius was a perfect foil for Da- 
 men's. Smarius was clear, too, but not so easy to fol- 
 
Fathers T)amen and Smarms 251 
 
 low. It requires a cultivated mind to appreciate its inner 
 art and one must have a liking for the periodic style 
 to appreciate him thoroughly. In reading Smarius, 
 one feels rather too conscious of his style. Sonorous 
 sentences that surge after one another like the waves 
 of the ocean; thought dignified though impassioned; 
 a colorful vocabulary that with a man of less ability 
 could have become bombastic, and a personality equal 
 to projecting all these with the greatest impressiveness. 
 As an example of Smarius' style, we shall quote 
 from his funeral sermon delivered in i860 at the grave 
 of Governor William H. Bissel, who entered the Church 
 in 1854 and who died in office as Governor of Illinois : 
 
 Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. 
 Apocalypse, 14, 13. 
 Fellow Citizens: 
 
 Were I to echo the plaintive murmurs of the immense 
 multitude by which I am surrounded on this solemn and 
 impressive occasion; were I to answer, sigh for sigh, and 
 sob for sob, as they come from the feeling hearts of the 
 sympathizing friends and relatives of the illustrious de- 
 parted, whose earthly remains lie enshrined in the taber- 
 nacle of death before me, I should have to choose another 
 text than that which I have selected for this well-deserved, 
 but alas, imperfect tribute of gratitude and love to the 
 memory of William H. Bissel, the late governor of your 
 flourishing state. For considering that the urn of grief 
 has been opened and that it is fast being filled with the 
 tears of respect and admiration, mixed with friendship 
 and with love; considering that a whole state, nay, the 
 nation, stands weeping over a loss which cannot imme- 
 diately, perhaps never, be repaired, I should, consulting 
 your natural feelings alone, find myself obliged to ex- 
 claim, in the language of seeming despondency, as did 
 the King of Amalec in the days of yore, 'Doth bitter death 
 separate in this manner ?' or, in the equally melancholy 
 expression of inconsolable grief, 'O death, how bitter is 
 thy memory!' But when I reflect on the peculiar circum- 
 stances in which I find myself placed before this wreck 
 
252 ^Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 of earthly greatness, and in the midst of this scene of 
 man's extreme littleness — the sepulchres of all the de- 
 parted — I am forced to change the keynote of unavailing 
 sorrow into the sounds of buoyant joy, and to cry out, 
 with the Angel of the Apocalyptic vision, 'Blessed are 
 the dead who die in the Lord !' 
 
 Yes, fellow citizens, blessed the illustrious dead whose 
 demise you deplore. Blessed the faithful soldier, the daunt- 
 less warrior, who in days gone by, when the honor of his 
 country was at stake, when the national insult was to be 
 avenged, and foreign justice forced to an equipoise of 
 her balance, drew his ready sword in defense of all her 
 rights, and in defiance of all her boasting enemies; who 
 girded himself with heroic courage and martyr fortitude 
 for the battle, and modestly enjoyed the victories in which 
 he had so large a share. Blessed, I repeat, is the faithful 
 warrior, the dauntless hero, who, when his hour was come, 
 yielded himself, a calm, a nobly resigned captive into the 
 hands of the ingenious Conqueror of our race, whose 
 power strikes with the same resistless force against the 
 marble palaces of the great as it does against the thatched 
 shanty of the lowlier and less favored subject. Blessed the 
 dead, who, like Governor Bissel, after having legislated 
 for others, are willing to fold up the scroll of laws, which, 
 as the representative of their nation, they had the hap- 
 piness to make or to approve for the prosperity of their 
 constituents, and to submit themselves without repining 
 to a higher law and a higher Lawgiver, whose stern de- 
 cree was issued into this world under the shade of the 
 beautiful and lovely trees of Paradise — 'Dust thou art 
 and unto dust thou shalt return/ Blessed the dead, who 
 like his excellency, now leveled down to our commonalty, 
 although once filling the high places of power, and seated 
 as it were on the throne of relative sovereignty, are never- 
 theless willing, yea, happy, to come down from those 
 often dazzling heights and deceitful thrones to obey the 
 summons of a Governor who ruleth not one state alone, 
 but the heavens with all their magnificence, harmony and 
 beauty, and the earth with all her varied scenes and scen- 
 ery; yea, 'Blessed are the dead who, like this great, this 
 beloved man, died in the Lord/ 
 
Fathers T>amen and Smarius 253 
 
 After this majestic introduction, with its refrain 
 that suggests the solemn tolling of a funeral bell, Sma- 
 rius moves on to consider the life of Governor Bissel, 
 coming finally to his conversion to the Church. He 
 dwelt on some of the leading motives that influenced 
 the Governor, particularly upon his vision of the 
 Church's indefectibility, her power of lasting through 
 all opposition. Here Smarius continues : 
 
 Then he looked back through the brilliant past of that 
 glorious Church. He unrolled her parchments and de- 
 ciphered her tell-tale hieroglyphics. He read of her as 
 she was ushered into existence 1900 years ago, in the 
 cenacle or supper-room at Jerusalem. He followed her 
 gradual expansion under the scourges of the Sanhedrim, 
 the stones of the Jewish mob, in the prisons of kings, in 
 the arenas of emperors, and on the rack and torture, pre- 
 sided over by wicked governmental minions. He beheld 
 her gory with the blood of thousands of confessors and 
 millions of martyrs. 
 
 He followed her down the meandering avenues of the 
 catacombs, and came forth with her from those subter- 
 ranean caverns to seat himself by the side of her on the 
 throne of the Constantines. He went with her on the 
 difficult mission of civilization. He stood by her when 
 she drove the Attilas back from the gates of the Eternal 
 City, and when she bade Genseric respect her rights and 
 those of her subjects. With her he was wondering at the 
 more than human success with which she built on the 
 ruins of ancient Rome another city of immortal memory. 
 
 Descending the stream of time he beheld along its banks 
 the ruins of the mightiest dynasties, empires and king- 
 doms that ever swayed the destinies of nations, whose 
 very names were wont to smite the heart of the bravest 
 warrior with terror. He gazed upon those ruins and ex- 
 claimed in astonishment. 'How are the mighty fallen!' 
 And then he turned himself to the proud monuments 
 which the Church of Rome had built by the side of those 
 ruins — monuments at which tyranny had aimed all its 
 missiles of destruction, slander all its empoisoned shafts 
 
254 zArnold 'Damen, SJ. 
 
 of envy, and asked himself the question: How has Rome, 
 pagan Rome, perished, and how has Catholic Rome sur- 
 vived the cruelty of ten pagan emperors, the savage vin- 
 dictiveness of Goth and Visigoth, of Heruli and Vandal 
 of Sueri and Almi? How stands she still, that despised, 
 that execrated mistress of the Churches? 
 
 Then he turned his attention to Mohammed and his 
 sanguinary caliphs. He saw them overrun the fairest por- 
 tions of Asia, the populous part of Africa, he heard the 
 tramp of Arabian steeds in the valleys of Spain and heard 
 their clattering hoofs along the Pyrenean mountains. He 
 wondered that Catholic Rome, the only earthly power to 
 oppose the fanaticism of the Prophet of Mecca, should 
 have succeeded in driving back from Tours, in France, 
 his formidable legions, and defeated his unconquerable 
 naval power in the battle of Lepanto. He read, he won- 
 dered, he said, 'The finger of God is there ! The God of 
 armies is with the Church of Rome !' 
 
 Floating down the same stream of ages, he beheld the 
 power of intellect, of science, of literature, of art, ar- 
 rayed against the Church of the Vatican. He read the 
 lucubrations of a seeming philosophy, whose sages, like 
 those of pagan Rome in its decline, sharpened their wit, 
 and stirred up their bitterest sarcasm against the so-called 
 absurd mummery and pomp of the religion of the Popes. 
 Nothing could shake his deep-rooted convictions ; nothing 
 could break his strong, masculine faith in the Church of 
 Rome. 
 
 Amid dissensions, he beheld her one and the same. 
 Amid self -contradicting sects, he found her still the One, 
 Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church. When Napoleon vented 
 his wrath of disappointed ambition against a defenseless 
 old man seated on the Throne of the Caesars, he watched 
 the issue and he saw a mighty tyrant lose the mightiest 
 empire of the world, while Rome retained her own, her 
 immortal empire of faith and love. 
 
 And in connection with Napoleon the First, he watched 
 and studied the course of his nephew, Napoleon the Third. 
 He, too, following in the footsteps of his uncle, is insidi- 
 ously assailing the old man of Rome. But Governor Bissel 
 conjectured what you will realize, that Napoleon the 
 
Fathers T)amen and Smarms 255 
 
 Third will fail, as did Napoleon the First, and that the 
 old man of Rome will live, even when his eldest, but re- 
 bellious son, shall have ceased to be. 
 
 Smarius, of course, in sermon or controversy, shifted 
 his manner and tone to the question in hand. But the 
 above extract, according to those who heard him, gives 
 us a correct idea of his general style and treatment of a 
 subject. 
 
 Damen is at the opposite pole. We have merely to 
 read almost any passage from his lectures, and the 
 difference becomes evident without any analysis. We 
 select one from his lecture on Church or Bible, wherein 
 he is proving that the Bible alone cannot be the teacher 
 of mankind. 
 
 I say, then, that it is not the private interpretation of 
 the Bible that has been appointed by God to be the teacher 
 of men, but the Church of the living God. 
 
 For, my dear people, if God has intended that man 
 should learn his religion from a book — the Bible — surely 
 God would have given that book to man; Christ would 
 have given that book to man. Did He do it? He did not. 
 Christ sent his Apostles throughout the whole universe, 
 and said: 
 
 'Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them 
 in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the 
 Holy Ghost/ He never said to his Apostles, 'Go and 
 write Bibles and distribute them and let everyone judge 
 for himself. That injunction was reserved for the six- 
 teenth century and we have seen the result of it. Ever 
 since the sixteenth century there have been springing up 
 religion upon religion, and churches upon churches, all 
 fighting and quarreling with one another, and all because 
 of the private interpretation of the Bible. 
 
 Christ sent His Apostles with authority to teach all 
 nations, and never gave them any command to write the 
 Bible, and the Apostles went forth and preached every- 
 where, and planted the Church of God throughout the 
 earth, and never thought of writing. 
 
256 ^Arnold T>amen y S.J. 
 
 The first word written was by St. Matthew, and he 
 wrote -for the benefit of a few individuals. He wrote the 
 Gospel about seven years after Christ left this earth. So 
 that the Church of God, established by Christ, existed 
 seven years before a line was written of the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 St. Mark wrote about ten years after Christ left this 
 earth, St. Luke about twenty-five years, and St. John 
 about sixty-three years after Christ had established the 
 Church of God. 
 
 The Catholic religion had existed sixty-five years be- 
 fore the Bible was completed, before it was written. 
 
 Now, I ask you, my dearly beloved separated brethren, 
 were these Christian people who lived during the period 
 between the establishment of the Church of Jesus and 
 the finishing of the Bible, were they really Christians, 
 good Christians, enlightened Christians? Did they know 
 the religion of Jesus? Where is the man who will dare 
 to say that those who lived from the time that Christ 
 went up to heaven to the time the Bible was completed 
 were not Christians? It is admitted on all sides, by all 
 denominations, that they were the very best of Christians, 
 the most perfect of Christians, the first fruit of the blood 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 But how did they know what they had to do to save 
 their souls? Was it from the Bible they learnt it? No, 
 because the Bible was not written. 
 
 And would our Divine Saviour have left the Church for 
 sixty-five years without a teacher, if the Bible is the 
 teacher of men? Most assuredly not. 
 
 Were the Apostles Christians? I ask you, my dear 
 Protestant friends. You say, 'Yes, sir, they were the very 
 founders of Christianity/ Now, my dear friends, none of 
 the Apostles ever read the Bible, not one of them, except 
 perhaps St. John; for all of them had died martyrs for 
 the faith of Jesus Christ and never saw the cover of a 
 Bible ; and every one of them died martyrs and heroes for 
 the Church of Jesus before the Bible was completed. 
 
 How, then, did those Christians that lived in the sixty- 
 five years after Christ had left this earth — how did they 
 know what tbey had to do to save their souls ? They knew 
 
Fathers Damen and Smarius 257 
 
 it in precisely the same way that you know it, my dear 
 Catholic friends. You know it from the teaching of the 
 Church of God and so did the primitive Christians know it. 
 
 Not only sixty-five years did Christ leave the Church 
 He had established without a Bible, but over three hun- 
 dred years. The Church of God was established and went 
 on spreading itself over the whole globe without the Bible 
 for more than three hundred years. In all that time the 
 people did not know what constituted the Bible. 
 
 In the days of the Apostles there were many false 
 gospels. . . . Even the learned themselves were disput- 
 ing whether preference should be given to the Gospel of 
 Simon or that of Matthew, to the Gospel of Nicodemus 
 or that of Mark, to the Gospel of Mary or that of Luke, 
 to the Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus or the Gospel of 
 St. John. 
 
 The people were at a loss for over three hundred years 
 to know which Gospel was false or spurious, or which in- 
 spired. And therefore they could not take the Bible for 
 their guide, for they did not know what constituted the 
 books of the Bible. 
 
 It was not until the fourth century that the Pope of 
 Rome, the Head of the Church, the successor of St. Peter, 
 assembled together the Bishops of the world in a council, 
 and there in that council it was decided that the Bible as 
 we have it now is the Word of God, that the Gospels of 
 Sts. Luke, Matthew, Mark and John and the Book of 
 Revelations were inspired by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Up to that time the whole world, for three hundred 
 years, did not know what the Bible was ; hence they could 
 not take it for their guide, for they did not know what 
 constituted the Bible. 
 
 Would our Divine Saviour, if He intended man to learn 
 his religion from a book, have left the Christian world for 
 three hundred years without that book? Most assuredly 
 not. 
 
 Not only for three hundred years was the world left 
 without the Bible, but for one thousand four hundred 
 years the Christian world was left without the sacred book. 
 
 Before the art of printing was invented, Bibles were 
 rare things ; Bibles were costly things. Now, you must all 
 
258 Arnold Teamen, SJ. 
 
 be aware, if you have read history at all, that the art of 
 printing was invented only a little more than four hun- 
 dred years ago, about the middle of the fifteenth century, 
 and about one hundred years before there was a Protestant 
 in the world. 
 
 As I have said, before printing was invented, Bibles 
 were rare and costly things. Historians tell us that in the 
 eleventh century — eight hundred years ago — Bibles were 
 so rare and costly that it took a fortune, a considerable 
 fortune, to buy one's self a copy. It took the lifetime of 
 a man to make one's self a copy of the Bible ! Before the 
 art of printing, everything had to be done with the pen 
 upon parchment or sheepskin. It was, therefore, a tedious 
 and slow operation — a costly operation. 
 
 Now, in order to arrive at the probable cost of a Bible 
 at that time, let us suppose that a man should work ten 
 years to make a copy of the Bible and earn a dollar a day. 
 Well, then, the cost of that Bible would be $3,650 ! Now, 
 let us suppose that a man should work at the copying of 
 the Bible for twenty years, as historians say it would 
 have taken him at that time, not having the conveniences 
 and the improvements to aid him that we have now. Then, 
 at a dollar a day, for twenty years, the cost of a Bible 
 would be nearly $8,000. 
 
 Suppose I came and said to you, 'My dear people, save 
 your soul. For if you lose your soul, all is lost/ You would 
 say, 'Sure enough, that is true!' You would ask, 'What 
 are we to do to save our souls T The Protestant preacher 
 would say to you, 'You must get a Bible ; you can get one 
 at such a shop/ You would ask the cost, and be told it 
 was $8,000. You would exclaim, 'The Lord save us ! and 
 cannot we go to heaven without that book?' The answer 
 would be, 'No ; you must have the Bible and read it/ You 
 murmur at the price, but are asked, 'Is not your soul 
 worth $8,000?' Yes, of course it is, but you say you have 
 not the money, and if you cannot get a Bible, and your 
 salvation depends upon it, evidently you would have to 
 remain outside the Kingdom of Heaven. This would be 
 a hopeless condition, indeed. 
 
 For fourteen hundred years the world was left without 
 a Bible. Not one in ten thousand, not one in twenty thou- 
 
Fathers T)amen and Smarms 259 
 
 sand before the art of printing was invented, had the 
 Bible. And would our Divine Lord have left the world 
 without that book if it was necessary to man's salvation? 
 Most assuredly not. 
 
 Damen then goes on to show that even could all 
 men read and had Bibles, they could not be sure of 
 their faith, and proves his statement by an example. 
 He says : 
 
 Let us suppose; here is an Episcopalian minister. He 
 is a sincere, an honest, a well-meaning and prayerful man. 
 He reads the Bible in a prayerful spirit, and from the 
 words of the Bible, he says, it is clear and evident there 
 must be Bishops, for without Bishops there can be no 
 priests, without priests, no Sacraments and without Sac- 
 raments, no Church. The Presbyterian is a sincere and 
 well-meaning man; he reads the Bible also, and deduces 
 from it that there should be no Bishops, but only Pres- 
 byters. 'Here is the Bible,' says the Episcopalian. And, 
 'Here is the Bible to give you the lie,' says the Presbyte- 
 rian. Yet both are prayerful and well-meaning men. 
 
 Then the Baptist comes in. He is a well-meaning, hon- 
 est man, and prayerful, also. 
 
 'Well,' says the Baptist, 'have you ever been baptized ?' 
 
 'I was,' says the Episcopalian, 'when I was a baby.' 
 
 'And so was I,' says the Presbyterian, 'when I was a 
 baby.' 
 
 'But/ says the Baptist, 'it was done by sprinkling, and 
 that is no Baptism at all. Unless you go down into the 
 river, like Christ,' says the Baptist, 'it is no Baptism at 
 all/ And he gives the Bible for it. 'Unless you are baptized 
 over again/ says the Baptist, 'you are going to hell as 
 sure as you live/ 
 
 Next comes the Unitarian, well-meaning, honest and 
 sincere. 
 
 'Well,' says the Unitarian, 'allow me to tell you that 
 you are a pack of idolaters. You worship a man for a 
 God who is no God at all/ And he gives several texts 
 from the Bible to prove it, while the others are stopping 
 their ears that they may not hear the blasphemies of the 
 
160 ^Arnold T)amen y SJ. 
 
 Unitarian. And they all contend they have the true mean- 
 ing of the Bible. 
 
 Next comes the Methodist, and he says : 
 
 'My friends, have you got any religion at all ?' 
 
 'Of course we have/ say they. 
 
 'Did you ever feel religion?' says the Methodist, 'the 
 Spirit of God moving within you ?' 
 
 'Nonsense/ says the Presbyterian, 'we are guided by 
 our reason and judgment/ 
 
 'Well/ says the Methodist, 'if you never felt religion, 
 you never had it and you will go to hell for all eternity/ 
 
 The Universalist next comes in and hears them talking 
 and threatening one another with eternal hell lire. 
 
 'Why/ says he, 'you are a strange set of people. Do you 
 not understand the Word of God? There is no hell at all. 
 That idea is good enough to scare old women and chil- 
 dren/ And he proves it from the Bible. 
 
 Next comes in the Quaker. He recommends them not 
 to be quarreling and advises that they do not baptize at 
 all. He is the sincerest of men, and gives the Bible for his 
 faith. 
 
 Another comes in and says : 
 
 'Baptize the men and let the women alone. For the Bible 
 says, Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy 
 Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. 'So/ 
 says he, 'the women are all right, but baptize the men/ 
 
 Next comes in the Shaker, and he says : 
 
 'You are presumptuous people, a presumptuous set of 
 people. Do you not know/ he says, 'that the Bible tells 
 you, you must work out your salvation in fear and trem- 
 bling and you do not tremble at all ? My brethren, if you 
 want to go to heaven, shake, my brethren, shake.' 
 
 All this seems very simple. But anyone who studies 
 it, remembering the purpose Damen had in mind, will 
 find his method and his language full of the art of the 
 preacher who is above all things a teacher. The simple 
 diction ; the short sentence ; clear and careful spreading 
 out of the argument section by section, fitting each to- 
 gether toward a skillful climax; the apparently negli- 
 
Fathers T)amen and Smarms 261 
 
 gent repetition of words and phrases that are really the 
 key words and phrases he wishes to stamp upon his 
 hearers' minds; the familiar, off-hand, easy-going dia- 
 logue, just the language appreciated by the man in the 
 street ; the confident yet friendly tone ; the plain, good- 
 natured humor, stingless, but very telling in its effect, 
 these show Damen a master in the art of addressing the 
 masses. The picture he draws of the confused convo- 
 cation of religions makes one think of nothing so much 
 as of a group of South Sea islanders, one wearing a 
 shirt, another a hat, another a coat or a pair of shoes, 
 another with a mirror or an umbrella, and each im- 
 agining he is perfectly dressed. Yet, though the whole 
 picture is both ridiculous and true, we are left with no 
 feelings of dislike or disrespect for the individuals in 
 the picture. Comparing the styles of Damen and Sma- 
 rius, one senses that Smarius could be difficult to fol- 
 low, but that nobody could miss Damen. 
 
 This combination of Damen and Smarius is in- 
 teresting, not only as showing how opposite two ap- 
 proaches to a subject can be, but historically it marks 
 the sharp dividing line between two styles of oratory, 
 one of which was leaving the scene, the other enter- 
 ing. Damen was probably the first great preacher in 
 America who made exclusive use of the popular style. 
 In this respect he was far ahead of his day. He brought 
 the homily of the early Fathers of the Church back 
 into its place. He reached the heart of the masses as 
 perhaps no preacher has done since. 
 
 He made his thoughts so transparent that in listening 
 to him no one ever thought of his style. One idea 
 Damen had in his speaking, and that was, he was de- 
 termined to be clear, to say what everyone not only 
 could understand, but could not help understanding. He 
 deliberately stripped his language of every ornament, 
 therefore, that might load it down and impede the 
 movement of his thought. He laid aside the cumber- 
 
262 ^Arnold 'Damen, SJ. 
 
 some armor of Saul for the sling of David, but he 
 always toppled his giants. His language had life, mo- 
 mentum, direction and speed. It traveled on an air line, 
 straight for its destination. And it had the power of 
 carrying with it all who came within its magic circle. 
 While fully sustaining the dignity of his subject, he 
 succeeded nevertheless in bringing its meaning down 
 to the capacity of the humblest of his hearers. 
 
 'His was an eloquence/ wrote one who knew him 
 well, 'that carried the multitude with irresistible force. 
 His stately figure, his powerful, yet musical and sym- 
 pathetic voice; above all, his heart, strong in its affec- 
 tions, and his soul's convictions, with its deep inspiring 
 fervor, combined nature and grace to make up that 
 characteristic piety possessed by Father Damen, which 
 made him in all the missions the most successful 
 preacher to the masses of the people/ 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 A TEACHER OF MEN 
 
 THE words we have quoted at the close of the pre- 
 ceding chapter indicate that Damen's striking per- 
 sonality was the large factor in his success. It is really 
 talking platitudes to say this, because no speaker can 
 begin to succeed without what we vaguely call 'person- 
 ality/ In other words, as we commonly and much more 
 clearly put it, he must 'have something.' Damen had 
 that 'something.' When he stood in the pulpit, before 
 uttering a syllable, he gave the impression of giant 
 power. But at the same time this was blended with a 
 sweetness, an innocence, a friendliness that welled forth 
 from him and spread with his power. So that as the 
 people looked at him, they knew that he loved them. 
 They felt that he was there to help them, not to hurt 
 them, and they surrendered on the spot. There was 
 indeed, about Damen, nothing whatever of that false 
 zeal which is only a symptom of an inner irritation of 
 spirit. Hence he could never scold, be bitter, indulge in 
 invective, or work himself into a fanatical frenzy. On 
 the other hand, though he always was in his speech 
 homely and familiar, he never approached the ir rever- 
 ential or the vulgar. He could, and he did, say strong 
 things, but he so tempered them with humor, with little 
 terms of affection and, above all, with the tones of his 
 voice, that he never inflicted a wound. He respected 
 at all times the dignity of the human soul. And when 
 he finished an argument, or concluded an exposition of 
 a falsehood, no matter how helpless he left the opposi- 
 tion, he never left the impression that it was Damen 
 
 263 
 
264 ^Arnold T>amen } SJ. 
 
 personally who had triumphed. It was the truth of the 
 Church that had been vindicated. 
 
 This spirit of confidence and trust that arose in an 
 audience with the mere presence of Damen, enabled 
 him to open his talks without much preamble of warm- 
 ing up to his subject, or any of the laborious verbal 
 technique of building up a friendly contact with his 
 hearers. His sermons began without an overture. He 
 was on his subject with his first sentence and kept after 
 his point with great force and directness all the way. 
 His audiences were so carried along with him that 
 they never wearied, even though standing, and they 
 never seemed to notice the time, even though he some- 
 times preached for two hours. Bishop Murphy says, 
 'He held this wonderful power of making an audience 
 forget everything but what he was telling them, up to 
 the end of his life. Often he was thrilling, but never 
 Jwas he less than interesting.' 
 
 In his long talks he had a way of introducing epi- 
 sodes, connected with his main subject indirectly, but 
 brought in as a short relief or rest. These short detours, 
 unexpected and apparently spontaneous, often made the 
 deepest impression on his audience. Thus, in his lec- 
 ture on Confession, intended for non-Catholics, he 
 suddenly turns and attacks the sources of their mis- 
 information. 
 
 My dear Protestant friends, if you would only take the 
 trouble to examine both sides of the question. But here 
 is your misfortune : you are a one-sided people ; you never 
 examine both sides of the question. Tell me candidly, 
 now, did you ever read a Catholic book in your life? 
 
 'No, sir, I would not take up a Catholic book.' 
 
 'But you have read a great many books against 
 Catholicity?' 
 
 *Yes, I have, and that is the very reason I do not want 
 to read any more about it.' 
 
 Well, that shows you are a one-sided people. How can 
 
e/f 'Teacher of {Men 265 
 
 you give an impartial judgment when you have examined 
 but one side of the question? What would you say of a 
 judge who sits in the criminal court, when a policeman 
 brings in a poor fellow and says to the judge : 
 
 'Judge, this man is guilty of such and such a crime/ 
 
 'Well, then, hang him/ says the judge. 
 
 'But/ says the poor man, 'Judge, I am innocent, and I 
 am able to prove my innocence. I am able to bring you 
 evidence and witnesses to prove my innocence/ 
 
 But the policeman insists that he is guilty. 
 
 'Well, then/ says the judge, 'hang him anyhow/ 
 
 What would you say of such a judge? 'Ah/ you would 
 say, 'unjust, cruel, bloodthirsty man, you are guilty of 
 shedding innocent blood ! Why do you not hear the man ? 
 Why do you not hear his evidence, and his witnesses and 
 his proofs? You are guilty of the blood of an innocent 
 man and you have condemned him without examination/ 
 
 'Well, now, my dear Protestant friends, allow me to 
 tell you (and I hope you will not be offended, for no man 
 of sense can be offended by the truth) that is the way you 
 have been treating the Catholics all the time. 'Hang them 
 anyhow/ you say. Did you ever examine the doctrines of 
 our holy religion? Did you ever read a Catholic book? 
 Never in your life. And then you condemn us — condemn 
 us without knowing what we are. Is that the part of a 
 sensible man? Is that just, I ask you? It is very hard to 
 tell you that you have been acting so unjustly to us Catho- 
 lics; but certainly none of you can be offended, for you 
 know it is a fact. You have been condemning us ; you have 
 been turning us into ridicule; you have been holding us 
 up to the odium of the people, without knowing what the 
 Catholic religion is at all. That is the way Jesus Christ 
 was treated and that is the way you are treating the fol- 
 lowers of Jesus Christ. Oh, my dear Protestant friends, 
 do become more just, more fair, more honest and chari- 
 table toward your fellow man. Condemn him not without 
 knowing that he really deserves to be condemned. Do not 
 examine one side of the question, but give a fair hearing 
 to both sides. Do I ask anything unreasonable? Is that 
 not fair and just? 
 
266 ^Arnold, T)amen, SJ. 
 
 Again he will clinch a point by a story, nearly al- 
 ways taken from his own experiences, bringing right 
 before the eyes of his hearers the practical side of the 
 truth he is advancing. In showing the disruptive re- 
 sults of denying the authority of the one Church, he 
 illustrates it with the following : 
 
 When I gave my mission in Flint, Michigan, I invited, 
 as I have done here, my Protestant friends to come and 
 see me. A good and intelligent man came to me and said : 
 
 'I avail myself of this opportunity to converse with 
 you/ 
 
 'What Church do you belong to, my friend ?' said I. 
 
 'To the Church of the Twelve Apostles/ said he. 
 
 'Ha, ha '/ said I. 'I belong to that Church, too. But tell 
 me, my friend, where was your Church started?' 
 
 'In Terre Haute, Indiana/ says he. 
 
 'Who started the Church, and who were the twelve 
 Apostles, my friend?' said I. 
 
 'They were twelve farmers/ says he. 'We all belonged 
 to the same Church — the Presbyterian — but we quarreled 
 with our preacher, separated from him and started a 
 Church of our own/ 
 
 'And that/ says I, 'is the twelve Apostles you belong 
 to — the twelve farmers of Indiana !' 
 
 That Church came into existence about fifteen years 
 ago. A few years since, when I was in Terre Haute, I 
 asked to be shown the Church of the Twelve Apostles. I 
 was taken to a window and it was pointed out to me. 
 
 'But it is not in existence any more/ said my informant. 
 'It is used as a wagon maker's shop now/ 
 
 Damen strongly favored the dramatic method of 
 presenting a subject. It made for action. Damen was 
 not a spotlight soloist nor a monologue artist. He 
 would not take the chance of the monotony of a mono- 
 logue to let his audience drowse off or drift away from 
 him. They were as much a part of his sermons as he 
 was. So when he was not doing a dialogue with some 
 imaginary outsider, he had the audience up in the pul- 
 
*A teacher of {Men 267 
 
 pit with him. He made them an essential part of his 
 sermon. He made them talk to him, argue with him. 
 And when he had them up close, it is remarkable how 
 much clearer Catholic teaching he could pack into a 
 brief space and give them in a manner that they could 
 not forget it. In his Answers to Popular Objections 
 against the Church, he thus takes up the question of the 
 worship of images in the Church : 
 
 'Again/ says my Protestant friend, T could never be a 
 Catholic, because the Catholics violate the first Command- 
 ment of God. That commandment says — Thou shalt not 
 make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any- 
 thing in the heavens above, nor on the earth beneath, nor 
 in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore, nor 
 worship them. Now, you Catholics violate that command 
 of God, and there is no slander about this. You have 
 only to go to the Catholic Church to find the evidence. 
 What is that over their altar there? The image of Christ 
 crucified — a likeness of the things in the heavens above. 
 And what is that there? The image of St. Ann, the 
 mother of the Blessed Virgin. And that? That is St. John 
 the Baptist, and therefore the likenesses of the things in 
 the heavens above. Therefore you Catholics violate the 
 commandments of God by making those images and 
 statues.' 
 
 'Well, my dear reverend minister of the Gospel, my 
 dear preacher, will you allow me to come to your home V 
 
 'Yes/ says he, T have no objection to let even an old 
 Jesuit come to my house/ 
 
 I go, and walk into my friend's drawing room, and 
 point to a painting on the wall, and ask, 'What painting 
 is that?' 
 
 'That/ says he, 'is the portrait of my dear mother/ 
 
 'Where is your mother now?' 
 
 T hope/ says he, 'that she is in heaven with God/ 
 
 'What is that painting?' 
 
 'That is the likeness of my darling wife/ 
 
 'Where is she?' 
 
 'She is upstairs in the nursery with her little ones/ 
 
268 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 'And that other painting over the door?' 
 
 'Well, sir, that is an oil painting of one of the great 
 masters. It represents a fish/ 
 
 'Why, my dear Protestant minister, what a breaker of 
 God's commandments you are! There is the likeness of 
 your mother, who you say is in heaven above; there is 
 the likeness of your wife, who is on the earth beneath; 
 and there is that fish, the likeness of the things in the 
 waters under the earth!' 
 
 'Foolish, foolish priest!' says he. 'Do you think that 
 because I have those pictures hanging up there that I 
 break the commandment of God ?' 
 
 'No, my friend, I do not. But you say that we Catholics 
 break it by having the pictures in the church/ 
 
 'There is no harm to make them/ he says, 'but you 
 adore them/ 
 
 'Here you slander us. We do not adore any of the im- 
 ages in the church/ 
 
 'Why have you them then?' 
 
 'Why have you the portrait of your mother?' 
 
 'Because,' says he, 'whenever I look at it, I remember 
 how good a woman she was. It seems to say to me, Be 
 good; be a Christian. When I look at that picture, I feel 
 myself excited to practice all the virtues of which she has 
 given me the example. I remember all the good lessons 
 she used to give me/ 
 
 'Why, you are a Catholic, my friend ! This is precisely 
 the use Catholics make of the pictures and the statues in 
 the church. When the Catholic looks at the image of 
 Christ crucified, he says, See what the Saviour has suf- 
 fered for me — how he has shed out His precious blood to 
 save my soul. I must, therefore, love Jesus. Whenever the 
 Catholic looks at the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
 he says — How pure, how holy and hozv chaste was Mary, 
 the Mother of Jesus. I must endeavor to imitate her pur- 
 ity in the service of God. When we look at the statue of 
 St. Joseph or of any other saint, we say — These saints 
 were men as we iire. They lived in the same world, had 
 the same passions and the same difficulties to contend with 
 as we have, but in spite of all these, they were faithful to 
 God. I can do the same, says the Catholic. I must, there- 
 
c/f Teacher of CM en l6<) 
 
 fore, make an effort to imitate their virtues and copy 
 their example/ 
 
 'But/ says my Protestant friend, 'you bow down be- 
 fore them. Have I not seen Catholics in this church, dur- 
 ing this mission, bowing to that image over the altar ?' 
 
 'No, not to the image, but to Jesus, whom they believe 
 to be in the holy Tabernacle. The Catholic bows, not to 
 the image, but bends his knee in homage to Jesus Christ. 
 Is that wrong, my dear friend?' 
 
 'No/ says the Protestant, 'for at the name of Jesus the 
 Bible tells us that every knee shall bow in heaven and 
 earth and even in hell. But you bow also to the statue of 
 the Blessed Virgin/ says he. 
 
 'No, not to the statue, but to the one represented by 
 the statue — the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God/ 
 
 'Is not Mary a creature?' 
 
 'Yes, a creature, but an exalted and holy creature/ 
 
 'Well/ says the Protestant, 'you must not bow to any 
 creature/ 
 
 'Why, my dear man, when I first came to Ottawa, I 
 met you in the street one day — you were pointed out to 
 me as the minister of such and such a church. I watched 
 you as you went along, and you met a friend, a lady, and 
 in a moment you had your hat in your hand and bowed 
 politely to her/ 
 
 'Yes, sir, but she is such a nice creature, she is such a 
 good and pious person, and we should respect virtue and 
 piety. And therefore I bowed to her/ 
 
 'And is not the Blessed Virgin good and holy, and 
 should I not bow to her and honor her exalted dignity 
 as the Mother of God?' 
 
 'Well, yes, that, after all, appears to be pretty reason- 
 able. But you Catholics overdo the thing. You make too 
 much fuss about the Blessed Virgin. You cannot find a 
 Catholic church with an altar to God in it, in which there 
 is not one to the Blessed Virgin also. I think that is 
 wrong, sir/ 
 
 'Well, my dear Protestant friend, suppose for a mo- 
 ment that the mother of George Washington were to 
 come to New York on a visit. What excitement and fuss 
 there would be there! Roaring of cannon and firing of 
 
270 ^Arnold ?)amen y SJ. 
 
 pistols and bands of music marching through the streets 
 and bonfires and illuminations. The ladies of New York 
 dressed up in the grandest possible style, and in beauti- 
 ful carriages rolling through the streets of New York. 
 Should I say — Ladies, what is all this fuss and excitement 
 about? Where are you going? They would answer, Sir, 
 we go to pay our respects to the mother of Washington. 
 She has put up at the Astor House and we go to see her. 
 — Well, ladies, I would say, why is the mother of Wash- 
 ington more than any other women that you should thus 
 honor her? — Oh, sir, they would say, it is easy to see 
 you are a Dutchman! What, sir! you say not honor the 
 mother of Washington who has given us so great a son, a 
 son who has made us a free, independent, glorious and 
 prosperous people? — All right, say I, go and honor the 
 mother of Washington. I love to see gratitude in the 
 hearts of the people. 
 
 •But tell me, my friends, has not Mary given us a 
 greater son than Washington? Has not Jesus done more 
 for us than Washington? Has not He delivered us from 
 the slavery of hell and made us heirs of heaven? And 
 would not we Catholics be an ungrateful people if we 
 did not respect the Mother that has given us s o gr eat 
 a Son? 
 
 'Well, I declare/ say my Protestant friends, 'that is 
 pretty reasonable after all/ 
 
 But although Damen in his controversial sermons 
 was a most effective and popular teacher of Catholic 
 doctrine, it was in his non-controversial sermons that 
 he showed his greatest power. When he turned from 
 presenting truth merely to the mind of his hearers, and 
 entered the practical field of conscience, he was at his 
 best. Here, too, he followed the same method of direct, 
 plain, forceful address, but here his faith, and fervor 
 and his love of God and God's law had full play. All 
 accounts agree that there was no one like Damen who 
 could turn the soul in upon itself and force it to realize 
 its sins, its shortcomings in the service of God. He 
 
c/f Teacher of {Men 271 
 
 made sin, its punishments, its ingratitude, so keen and 
 so personal a presence to all who listened to his thrilling 
 appeals, that he roused them to immediate action. They 
 wanted to go to Confession at once, to shake off for- 
 ever their habits of sin, to start their lives over, to 
 love God from the bottom of their hearts. Scenes such 
 as these witnessed the conclusion of every one of his 
 sermons of the mission. Unfortunately, we have noth- 
 ing of these sermons left us except the notes he spoke 
 from, outlines that show us the orderly progress of 
 the sermon and its close adherence to the lines of the 
 Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. But there can be 
 no doubt of their extraordinary power when vivified 
 by the personality of the man. 
 
 When a youth I entered Holy Family Church, Chicago, 
 during a mission [writes Mr. Joseph Sheridan], Father 
 Damen was preaching in a pulpit that stood in front of 
 the Communion railing. I heard his powerful voice near 
 the door just as plainly as if I were within a few yards 
 of him. He held a large bandanna handkerchief in his 
 hand. The impression of that particular sermon is vivid 
 in my recollection. His appeal was wonderfully, excep- 
 tionally dramatic. He thoroughly understood the art of 
 arousing the dormant religious sentiments of his audi- 
 ence. My mother relates that once when Father Damen 
 was preaching on the enormity of mortal sin, a man stood 
 up in the pew crying aloud, T am in mortal sin ! I am in 
 mortal sin!' 
 
 Father Hillman, who was a co-laborer with Damen 
 on many of his missions, used to say that he never 
 failed to be impressed by Father Damen's sermons, no 
 matter how many times he heard them. 
 
 Mother Sheridan, of the Religious of the Sacred 
 Heart, heard Damen preach when she was a young girl. 
 
 Who that ever heard his heart-stirring appeal at the 
 close of his mission [she writes] , could possibly forget it ? 
 
272 ^Arnold T>ameny S.J. 
 
 When he raised his large crucifix and prayed to our Lord 
 Jesus Christ for mercy on his erring children, pleading 
 with Him by His precious blood, His wounds, His heart's 
 love, who could resist? Then when he turned to the con- 
 gregation and begged them to return to their God, their 
 Friend, their Saviour, strong men wept hot tears and 
 hundreds of stricken souls laid down their burden of 
 sin where God's holy absolution brought pardon and 
 peace. And this scene was no piece of idle rhetoric. Father 
 Damen's whole being went into the prayer — his faith, 
 his earnestness, his love of souls, all showed that he con- 
 sidered their salvation a matter of tremendous moment, 
 a matter of life and death. 
 
 Mother Herbert, also a Sacred Heart nun, heard 
 Damen when but a child of eight years, and carried the 
 memory of that sermon all her life. 
 
 After a thrilling sermon on the Passion [she tells us] he 
 held aloft in the pulpit a huge crucifix and addressed the 
 Saviour as follows : 'My God, it was my sins of wanton- 
 ness and rebellion, leading me to occasions of sin that 
 caused those fearful wounds in your sacred Feet; my 
 refusal to walk to Sunday Mass drove the nails deeper 
 and deeper; my cursing, swearing, my uncharitable and 
 blasphemous speech that caused the awful parching of 
 
 your sacred lips ' as he went on, the sobs and cries 
 
 that broke forth from the congregation of men and 
 women were terrifying to me. The words 'wantonness and 
 rebellion' never left my memory. And then the sublimity 
 of the act of contrition, said aloud with him, left an im- 
 pression on my eight years that will never be effaced. 
 That deep, earnest, sonorous voice of his drove his words 
 into the soul of everyone present. 
 
 When such ineradicable impressions could be made 
 upon children hardly awakened to the meaning of sin, it 
 is easy to see how deeply Damen must have stirred souls 
 with a long record of sin through their lives, as he 
 awoke them to their condition and, as Xavier said, 
 showed them clearly to themselves, as in a mirror. 
 
*A Teacher of Men 273 
 
 The note of terror which rang through parts of 
 Damen's sermons like the trumpets of the last judg- 
 ment, might be considered somewhat too severe for 
 more modern, and perhaps more blase taste. But there 
 is no doubt that Damen's practical use of it was un- 
 derstood by, and was effective with, his audiences. Had 
 he seen that it was not practical he would not have used 
 it. Damen believed in getting results and he would 
 allow no hobby to interfere with that ideal. He was, 
 therefore, not an a priori terrorist in the pulpit. He 
 could be cool, argumentative, humorous, reminiscent, 
 appealing and, as those who remember tell us, sublime. 
 His wish was not to drive his hearers into hysterics, 
 but into definite spiritual action, and as anyone who 
 has had experience of mission work knows, there are 
 plenty who need the driving. The metropolitan papers 
 of the day called Damen the Catholic Beecher, but this 
 is exceedingly faint praise for the kind of work Damen 
 aimed at, which was to open a path into souls for the 
 grace of God. He did not consider himself a preacher 
 but an apostle, a teacher of divine truth to men. He 
 knew he was laying foundations, not building airy 
 pinnacles or chiseling delicate traceries. And he adapted 
 his language and his method and manner to this pre- 
 cise work. Heavy storms was the prevailing weather in 
 the seas that Damen rode, and to meet it he sailed under 
 bare poles. Delicate phraseology, rounded sentences, 
 balanced periods, flights of fancy, 
 
 Jewels five words long 
 That on the stretched forefinger of all time 
 Sparkle forever, 
 
 were all gewgaws to Damen in his thirsting quest of 
 souls. He pushed these to one side as tools useless for 
 blasting the rock. Not that he underestimated the power 
 of language. On the contrary, he used it with consum- 
 
274 Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 mate skill, fitting it exactly to the purpose and the peo- 
 ple to whom it was addressed. Souls were a matter of 
 life and death to him and in matters of life and death, 
 Darnels speech is the kind that a man who rises to 
 the situation will use. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 A CRITICISM AND ITS ANSWER 
 
 DAMEN'S course through his missions was not 
 altogether without criticism. One of the criticisms 
 he had to meet came from some of his Jesuit confreres 
 concerning his method of obtaining money. We have 
 seen what his financial troubles were in the founding 
 of his Chicago parish, the building of the great church, 
 the group of schools, and the college, with their 
 constant demand for equipment, for teachers and the 
 steady drain of overhead expense; this, too, amid a 
 population, who, though generous to their last penny, 
 could not, out of their own immediate resources, keep 
 up with the money speed that the growing city de- 
 manded. Damen was the center of this entire system, 
 responsible for seeing it through and for carrying his 
 people along with him. He was building for the future 
 and as a consequence he was nearly always in debt. 
 The only thing he could do, finally, was to make ap- 
 peals for help while on his missions. With the permis- 
 sion of the pastors in whose parishes he gave missions, 
 he explained to the people his difficulties, told them 
 what he was trying to do at home, and asked their as- 
 sistance. They understood him and they helped him. 
 It was principally with such donations that he built the 
 college. 
 
 After his missions, too, he often gave a special lec- 
 ture for which admission was charged, and part of this 
 went to his building fund. All this, though a normal 
 procedure in the ordinary American way of doing 
 things, was a source of anxiety to some of Damen's 
 
 275 
 
276 ^Arnold T)amen> SJ. 
 
 superiors. There is a Jesuit rule directing that no spirit- 
 ual work of any member of the Society shall be done 
 under anything like an understanding that it must be 
 paid for in money. Alms may be taken or gifts freely 
 made, but there must be nothing like a quid pro quo, 
 a hire and salary contract in any sense. This idea of 
 charging for lectures seemed to be something like such 
 a contract. Complaints were made about it to superiors. 
 It was reported to them also that Father Damen talked 
 too often in money terms about his Chicago enter- 
 prises. Father Keller, who was termed by the then 
 Visitor, Father Murphy, 'a rather severe appraiser of 
 men and things/ wrote about both Smarius and Damen, 
 criticizing the former for his 'bluntness in speaking 
 of sins of impurity and for what sounds like per- 
 sonal invective in his controversial sermons on 
 Protestantism' ; and the latter for his 'eagerness to col- 
 lect money for his Chicago buildings in the Holy Fam- 
 ily parish.' However, he concluded his comment by 
 saying, 'Perhaps we are too timid, too cautious. Cer- 
 tainly, if you can here apply the maxim, By their fruits 
 ye shall know them, we shall have to confess that these 
 Fathers are dear to God and are led by the spirit of 
 God.' 
 
 The General, Father Beckx, wrote in 1870 to Father 
 Coosemans that from what he could judge, Damen was 
 too much after money, though his work otherwise 
 was altogether admirable. Criticisms of this nature 
 trickled in from time to time, and indeed could have 
 been expected from those who did not realize the 
 straits Damen was frequently in to support his spread- 
 ing work in Chicago. Damen himself believed that after 
 his explanation of these difficulties to his audiences, all 
 the assistance they offered him was done purely of their 
 own free will. In 1875, however, a formal complaint 
 was made to the General to the effect that the missions 
 directed by Father Damen were undertaken for the 
 
cA Criticism and Its ^Answer 277 
 
 sake of gain. Besides their necessary expenses, it was 
 said, the missionaries obtained money from the sale 
 of books, which like traveling merchants, they carried 
 with them/ and by public lectures given in the church 
 for money immediately after the close of the mission. 
 'Toward the close of the mission,' the statement con- 
 tinued, 'a sermon on Purgatory is given to arouse pity 
 for the souls in Purgatory. Then the people are ex- 
 horted to buy an admission ticket — for the lecture — 
 for each of the departed souls of their relatives. The 
 tickets of admission are sold for fifty cents and the 
 total is divided between the pastor and the missionary. 
 Then it is announced to the people that those who buy 
 tickets become benefactors of the college of St. Igna- 
 tius in Chicago. In the year 1873 the priests of the 
 diocese of X. were so scandalized that they would have 
 denounced the matter to your Paternity had they not 
 been dissuaded by the Vicar General. But that same 
 Vicar General considered it unworthy of the Society/ 
 
 It was asserted, also, that the Bishops censured the 
 practice severely, and that the Provincial said that he 
 'could not hinder Father Damen from the acquisition 
 of money' because, the writer explained, 'he feared 
 Father Damen and the money lovers.' 
 
 These criticisms were reported back from the Gen- 
 eral to the Province authorities, who in turn laid them 
 before Father Damen. After a full discussion of the 
 matter together, they requested him to write, with their 
 approval, an explanation to the General. Damen wrote 
 as follows: 
 
 Chicago, August 17, 1875. 
 
 Very Reverend and dear Futher, P.C.: 
 
 The Very Rev. Father Provincial has read before 
 Father Rector and Consultors of Chicago two letters 
 from your Paternity concerning the selling of books of 
 piety and of instruction, which takes place during the 
 
278 ^Arnold T>amen, SJ. 
 
 missions; and concerning the lectures, which take place 
 after the missions. I have explained to them the manner 
 and the reasons of these two things and after my ex- 
 planation all decided that these two things ought to be 
 continued ad major em Dei gloriam. And Rev. Father Pro- 
 vincial ordered me to explain to you matters as they are. 
 
 1. That which concerns the sale of books: We have 
 nothing to do with that ; it is the cure or parish priest who 
 chooses anything for sale, books of piety, etc., rosaries, 
 medals and other pious objects. The profit from the sale 
 is applied by the parish priest either to his church or to 
 his school or to the poor. We have nothing to do with 
 that. It is the affair of the cure or pastor of the church, 
 and by no means our affair. The same thing is done in all 
 the missions given by other missionaries of other Re- 
 ligious Orders. The only profit we derive is the copyright 
 on the books written by our Fathers (FF. Weninger and 
 Smarius) and this amounts to a mere trifle. Nevertheless, 
 this gives us the means of giving alms now and then, and 
 of giving gratis books of instruction to Protestants. The 
 parish priests and Bishops wish this absolutely, and they 
 have need of it for their schools and churches. Father 
 Weninger will tell you the same. 
 
 Now as regards the lectures after the missions: 
 
 1. It is the custom in this country, in the United States 
 and in Canada, to invite orators and popular speakers who 
 have some reputation to give controversial, dogmatic or 
 historical lectures to which they charge an admission of 
 fifty cents. And the money is given for building churches 
 and schools, for hospital aid, for orphan asylums, for the 
 poor, etc., etc. It is a method of obtaining means, alms 
 for works of piety, of religion, of mercy, of charity, ap- 
 proved by the Archbishops and Bishops, the Catholics 
 and Protestants. All do it. 
 
 2. All the churches, schools and religious institutions 
 are heavily burdened with debts, and the Bishops or 
 parish priests beg me ordinarily to give a lecture after 
 the mission for their aid in the embarrassment in which 
 they find themselves to keep up the schools of the parish, 
 or to pay the interest on their church debts, or to support 
 the orphans, or something of that nature. I never refuse 
 
c/f Criticism and Its '^Answer 279 
 
 them and they give me half of the proceeds of the lecture 
 to help pay the debts of our establishment in Chicago. 
 
 3. I never give that kind of lecture unless the Bishops 
 and parish priests desire it. If the Bishops and the parish 
 priests do not desire it, it is not done. 
 
 4. Persons have written you that the Bishops and vicars 
 general have condemned this kind of lectures. That is 
 false. Because this very Bishop concerning whom they 
 have written you, when I gave a mission in his cathedral, 
 begged me earnestly to continue giving these lectures in 
 his diocese, and to begin in the episcopal city after the 
 mission, to aid his schools — that he could not support his 
 schools without this means. It has likewise been told you 
 that the vicar general of this diocese had condemned the 
 practice of these lectures, but this is false. They should 
 have told you that this was the jealousy of an ex-Jesuit, 
 Rev. Mr. X, of the province of Maryland, who has spoken 
 against this to the vicar general. But after that the Bishop 
 told me not to pay attention to these remarks of this ex- 
 Jesuit and to continue to give lectures for the instruction 
 of his people and for the support of works of piety and 
 of charity. 
 
 5. You have also been told that the reputation of our 
 Society will suffer from this and that it is looked upon 
 more as a money-making affair than to do good to the 
 souls of our fellow men. Response: If this is true, why 
 do the Archbishops, Bishops and parish priests think so 
 highly of our missions? To make sure of our services 
 they are obliged to invite us one or two years in advance. 
 I have at present applications for missions for the year 
 1877. I am obliged to refuse half the invitations for 
 missions because all our time is taken up. If I could double 
 myself and give four missions at a time, at the same time, 
 I would not be able to satisfy all the demands which press 
 upon me for coming to their help. Is not this a refutation 
 of the accusation that my method of giving the missions 
 with lectures is harmful to the good name of our Society ? 
 For 18 years I have been engaged in giving missions in 
 the United States and Canada, and always in the principal 
 churches and cathedrals. Everywhere the Bishops and 
 priests always ask me to come back. There was a Bishop 
 
280 ^Arnold Ttamen, SJ. 
 
 who was very much opposed to the Society and who 
 would not permit Jesuits to enter his diocese, especially 
 after the Vatican Council. Well, by dint of entreaties of 
 two of the most venerable priests of his diocese he allowed 
 me to give two missions, which produced such fruits that 
 this same Bishop invited me to preach the jubilee in his 
 cathedral. And now this Bishop is our greatest friend, 
 and desires, when we pass through the episcopal city, that 
 we always lodge at the episcopal palace. And he makes 
 us ride in the episcopal carriage. Another Bishop does 
 not permit the Jesuits to exercise any jurisdiction in his 
 diocese, except the Jesuits of our province. I have given 
 twenty missions in his diocese with much fruit. I ask 
 you, my Rev. Father, if our missions were not popular 
 and were not approved by the Bishops, would they have 
 continued to invite us, for 18 years, to come to their aid 
 by our method of conducting missions? 
 
 6. I am strongly persuaded, if your Paternity forbids 
 our giving lectures after the missions, that the Bishops 
 and parish priests will no longer invite us to conduct mis- 
 sions, because all have the greatest difficulty in keeping 
 up their parochial schools, which cost them a great deal. 
 They receive nothing from the government and they are 
 obliged to engage professors at a high salary. At the same 
 time they cannot permit the children to frequent the 
 public schools. And the lectures help them very much. 
 The other missionaries of other Religious Orders do the 
 same thing. Likewise, to interrupt the giving of lectures 
 as we have done up to the present is to interrupt the 
 missions and stop the invitations for giving them. I am 
 astonished that you allow yourself to be led by a Father 
 who has only five months experience of missions, instead 
 of taking the advice of those who have conducted mis- 
 sions for eighteen years with great fruit and edification. 
 I am completely indifferent as to continuing or abandoning 
 the lectures after the missions, but I assure you that we 
 will be forced to abandon the English missions. 
 
 7. You have likewise been told that at the end of the 
 missions we preach a sermon on Purgatory. Yes, we al- 
 ways preach a sermon on Purgatory or on venial sin, but 
 
e/f Qrhicism and Its\Answer 281 
 
 not at the end of the mission. This we judge necessary, 
 because if people commit venial sins voluntarily they will 
 not preserve themselves long from mortal sin. And what 
 harm is there in that? Is it wrong to incite men to avoid 
 venial sin, and to be merciful to the dead? 
 
 If your Paternity were here and saw things as they are 
 I am sure you would approve our manner of acting in 
 the missions. Moreover, I ought to tell you that I always 
 announce to the people that, since the Bishop or the parish 
 priest gives us half the revenue from the lecture to help 
 us pay the debt on our establishment in Chicago, they will 
 participate in the prayers and Masses which we, according 
 to our rule, say for our benefactors. 
 
 Well, my Rev. Father, I have written you, through 
 obedience, a long letter, and I hope that you will read it 
 attentively. And I am perfectly indifferent as to your 
 decision. I shall follow it most exactly; but I surely be- 
 lieve, if you forbid the lectures after the missions, that 
 our missions, especially in the large cities, have come to 
 an end. 
 
 I recommend myself to your Sacrifices and prayers. 
 Your Reverence's least servant, 
 
 A. Damen, S. J. 
 
 This answer of Damen placed the situation in an 
 entirely different light. Damen had not peddled books, 
 nor given the scandal reported, nor played in a decep- 
 tive manner on the religious sympathy of his audiences. 
 He had gone about everything in a simple, straight- 
 forward way, using nothing but the methods familiar 
 to and accepted by the American people. The General 
 understood Damen's letter and went with him on all 
 points except the matter of the lectures. On this point 
 he advised Damen to discontinue the admission fee 
 for these, even though it was a recognized custom in 
 America. Damen obeyed at once. 
 
 What Damen felt most keenly in the report, however, 
 was not the criticism of his methods, but the intimation 
 that in the event of pressure being brought to bear on 
 
282 zAmold r Damen^ SJ. 
 
 him to make a change in his system, he would be found 
 wanting in obedience. The fact is that Damen was 
 scrupulously obedient and always, as in the case here, 
 followed the wishes of superiors like a child. He could 
 present his views vigorously, but when the final de- 
 cision came, there was no further question in his mind 
 as to what he should do. 
 
 The idea that he was a lover of money, he likewise 
 considered to be unjust, as an attack upon his poverty. 
 He had, it is true, gathered money, and in large 
 amounts for that day. But he had never kept or used a 
 penny of it for himself. He could account for every 
 dollar that had been given to him. It had been all turned 
 back to the people in another form, in buildings, in 
 charity, in religious and educational enterprises. Da- 
 men never owned nor claimed a dollar of all the money 
 he handled. His personal bank account was always at 
 zero. He used money with the skill of a man with an 
 unusual business talent, but he looked upon himself 
 merely as the steward of his people, to whom he was 
 responsible. And these, on their part, not only trusted 
 him absolutely, but were astonished at the extraordi- 
 nary results of his wise investments. Even what he 
 might legally have claimed as his own, the earnings of 
 his individual efforts, he paid into the general fund as 
 his personal contribution to the work. From no logical 
 point of view could he be called a 'money lover.' 
 
 However, he was not again seriously disturbed in 
 the conduct of the missions. While he felt keenly what 
 he believed to be the injustice of the criticism, he did 
 not allow it to clog his energy, and interfere with his 
 work. He shook off any temptation to brood over the 
 charges, and went ahead as though nothing had been 
 said. And the Lord blessed his effort with even greater 
 success than at any previous time. Contrary to his pre- 
 diction, the omission of the lectures at the close of 
 
of Qriticism and Its ^Answer 283 
 
 missions, did not affect their fruitfulness. Just the 
 opposite happened. During the years immediately suc- 
 ceeding, his missions reached the peak of their power 
 and the harvest he gathered was more abundant than 
 ever before. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 SOME MEMORIES OF FATHER DAMEN 
 
 DURING the years from 1869 to 1872, Damen 
 was the acting President of St. Ignatius College, 
 as well as missionary and pastor of the Holy Family 
 parish. This looks like an impossible trinity of occupa- 
 tions, and for anyone with a less capacious energy than 
 Damen's, it would have proved so. He managed all 
 three until the young college had made a promising 
 beginning, when he was succeeded as President. The 
 General, in announcing this change as being necessary- 
 through the incompatibility of the two positions of 
 missionary and college president being directed simul- 
 taneously by the same man, commends Father Damen 
 for his 'tireless patience, and for the prudence and the 
 fortitude under difficulties material and spiritual, by 
 which he has brought all his work to so high a degree 
 of efficiency/ Damen still remained pastor of the 
 church and missionary. Even this combination would 
 seem an incongruous one. As missionary, he must be 
 away from home, and he actually was away for nine 
 months of the year. As pastor he must be at home 
 among his people. It is difficult to imagine a pastor, 
 absent from home three fourths of the time, who 
 would not lose contact with his parish work; indeed, 
 who would not be all but forgotten by his parishioners. 
 But with Damen it was different. His spirit had leav- 
 ened the parish so thoroughly that whether abroad or 
 at home, he seemed always present to the people. He 
 was to them like the father of a family whose name 
 and whose influence is never forgotten in the house- 
 
 284 
 
Some ^Memories of Father 'Damen 285 
 
 hold, no matter where he happens to be. Father 
 O'Meara gives us a clear idea of how Damen was re- 
 garded at that time in Chicago : 
 
 I was at St. Ignatius College in 1879- 1880 as Professor 
 of Poetry. And on Christmas Eve of that year ten Fathers 
 were kept busy hearing Confessions up to midnight in 
 the church. At that period that parish was in the full 
 swing of prosperity, and all the people were enthusiastic 
 about Father Damen. It was 'Damen's church' and 
 'Damen's parish/ founded out in the prairie and gathered 
 and established in three years, 185 7- 1860, when the grand 
 church was solemnly dedicated. It was asserted in the 
 papers of that year, that the parish of Father Damen had 
 extended Chicago to twice its size; that Father Damen 
 had found it a town and had made it a city. 
 
 Results like these could not, of course, have been 
 attained without the able and unselfish co-operation 
 of many others, which Damen knew how to secure and 
 which he gratefully acknowledged and depended on. 
 But they, too, had the advantage of being 'armed with 
 his crested and prevailing name' that cleared the way 
 for their advance. 
 
 And so when Damen returned from his missionary 
 tours, it was a great homecoming for the parish. They 
 knew when he was to arrive and they were awaiting 
 him, like one of the old sea captains coming back to 
 his home port and his family after a distant voyage. 
 
 The church was filled to receive him. 
 
 When he came back from his big missions, [says Father 
 William Wallace] to his 'dear home/ his 'dear Holy 
 Family parish/ his 'dear people/ he did not enter by 
 the back door of the church. He entered the church by the 
 large middle door in front and walked reverently up the 
 center aisle and went to the sacristy to vest for Mass. 
 And when Sunday came, he went into the pulpit and told 
 his people the story of his travels — all about his missions, 
 his converts, the great numbers of Communions given; 
 
286 ^Arnold Dametiy SJ. 
 
 put them in touch with all his work, and told them again 
 and again how glad he was to be back among his own. 
 
 Immediately upon his return he picked up the 
 routine work of the parish as though he had never 
 been away. He was regularly in his confessional, visited 
 the sick and the poor, preached, instructed young and 
 old in the catechism, went through the schools, planned 
 for the improvement of the parish and the completion 
 of any work that remained to be done. He was among 
 his people again, just as in earlier days when they were 
 building up the parish together. 
 
 During one of these periods at home, Damen under- 
 took the construction of the great church tower. It 
 was fourteen years since the main structure was fin- 
 ished with the tower left truncated. By 1874, Damen 
 saw his way to completing the church by finishing the 
 tower. Among those who put in bids for the tower was 
 Mr. John Garvey, a very close friend of Father Damen, 
 a contractor who had already done much excellent work 
 for him on other parish buildings. Damen refused to 
 consider Mr. Garvey's bid. 
 
 'Why do you throw out this bid?' protested Mr. 
 Garvey. 'Hasn't all the rest of my work been satis- 
 factory V 
 
 'Yes,' said Damen, 'it has.' 
 
 'Then why not give me a chance at this?' said Mr. 
 Garvey. 
 
 'Well, John,' said Damen, 'I'll tell you. Your bid is 
 a good one, as good as any. But you have never built 
 a church tower before.' 
 
 'If that's the kind of answer I'll get from everyone 
 else who wants any big work done, I'll never get a 
 chance,' said Mr. Garvey. 'I can build the tower. Why 
 not let this be my first one?' 
 
 Damen was inexorable and someone else got the 
 contract M^ Garvey was so disgusted at what he con- 
 
Some {Memories of Father Damen 287 
 
 sidered this cavalier disposal of his bid that, as soon 
 as he could, he* moved out of the parish. He had for 
 some time before been thinking of a more commodious 
 home for his growing family, and he went over to the 
 Sacred Heart parish adjoining the Holy Family parish 
 and also under the Jesuit Fathers. There he selected 
 ground near the church and built himself a house that 
 was exactly what he desired. He had been living in it 
 but a short time when Father Damen was transferred 
 from the Holy Family parish to be the superior of the 
 Sacred Heart parish. Within a week, Father Damen 
 visited Mr. Garvey's home and just as though there 
 had never been any misunderstanding at all, greeted 
 him cordially, praised his house and looked it over 
 carefully. Then he said, 
 
 'John, I think we are going to need this house for 
 the parish.' 
 
 'Need the house for the parish!' echoed Mr. Garvey, 
 scarcely believing his senses. 'What's the meaning of 
 that?' 
 
 'Why,' said Father Damen, 'the school is growing 
 so fast that we must get a much greater number of 
 Sisters to teach than we had expected. We have to get 
 a home right away for these Sisters and this is the 
 only possible house in the neighborhood that will suit, 
 close to the school and all.' 
 
 The upshot of the conversation was that Mr. Garvey 
 agreed to leave his house and give it over to the Sisters. 
 The spell of Damen was as potent as ever. Mr. Garvey 
 discovered that his friendship for his old pastor was 
 unchanged. He moved his family into quarters even 
 more cramped than those he had in the first place, the 
 Sisters took his new home, the parish was lifted out 
 of a difficulty and Mr. Garvey was at large looking for 
 another location. This story, which was told us by Mr. 
 Garvey's son, Father Arnold Garvey, S. J., illustrates 
 as well as anything could, the confidence Damen had 
 
t 2 8 8 ^Arnold Teamen, SJ. 
 
 in his friends, and the certain response he got from 
 them, even when his demands verged on the chimerical. 
 But they knew Damen would do the same for them if 
 they needed it. They had seen him do it often. 
 
 Another incident in connection with the building 
 of the tower did not turn out so fortunately for Father 
 Damen. When the digging for the foundation was un- 
 der way, some practical joker emptied a few gallons 
 of oil into the water that had seeped through below. 
 Father Damen thought they had discovered an oil 
 well. Great stir and excitement ! Here was the solution 
 of all his worries over paying for church, schools, col- 
 lege. For some days, rosy dreams and a Midas-like 
 feeling of touching oil into gold. A big oil derrick 
 alongside the church might not possess the architec- 
 tural dignity of a Gothic tower, but it was ever so 
 much more useful. Ultimately it would build the tower. 
 Closer investigation soon revealed the sad reality and 
 Damen relinquished his vision of being the pioneer 
 discoverer of Chicago oil. He then enjoyed the joke 
 as others had enjoyed his enthusiasm. 
 
 Another relaxation from Damen's mission work was 
 giving retreats. An eight-day retreat calls for at least 
 thirty-two talks. It is nothing simple to give thirty-two 
 consecutive talks to the same audience — intelligent per- 
 sons, expert in making retreats — and not bore them. 
 Spiritual yawns, I suspect, are often more frequent 
 among the exercitants than the retreat master supposes. 
 The retreat ground is already so trodden that it takes 
 original, personal effort to coax a fresh blade of grass 
 above the surface. A retreat can easily be a thin trickle 
 of spirituality through a desert of platitude. 
 
 From many sources we have evidence that Damen 
 was impressive in retreats as in missions. From the 
 beginning to the end of the theme they went to his 
 talks gladly, and left reluctantly. Father O'Meara, who 
 
Some ^Memories of Father T)amen 289 
 
 made a retreat under Damen sixty-three years ago, 
 recalls it vividly still. He writes : 
 
 In the old days after the Civil War, when the Missouri 
 Province was yet young and possessed only two colleges, 
 the scholastics from Cincinnati along with those of St. 
 Louis University passed the summer vacations at the 
 summer villa. At the end of the vacation in 1866, Father 
 Damen came to St. Louis to give our retreat. He was 
 then in the prime of manhood, about fifty years of age. 
 
 I remember that retreat from the impression it pro- 
 duced on me, and from notes I jotted down at the time. 
 What struck me most was his relation of the death of a 
 fellow novice, as he had witnessed it. There was a young 
 man, he told us, in whom there appeared nothing extraor- 
 dinary during the first months of the novitiate. Then 
 he read the life of St. Aloysius. After that he began to 
 be a model of fervor and recollection and of union with 
 God in prayer. Three months later he fell sick. Well, I 
 was sitting up with him one night and suddenly I heard 
 him cry out: 'Carissime, O carissime Damen!' and I 
 moved up close to the bed. 
 
 'Carissime, do you see that? See the Blessed Virgin 
 coming to take my soul !' 
 
 I was alarmed and called in the Community. And ex- 
 claiming, 'The Blessed Virgin is come!' the happy novice 
 was rising to meet her. And his soul went into bliss with 
 her as his body fell back on the bed — dead. 
 
 'Thus/ he remarked, 'the good Religious has the unction 
 of grace to sweeten his last agony and our heavenly 
 Mother will not forget us at the hour of death/ 
 
 This is given in his own words, as only Damen could 
 give it. It is no wonder that this experience supported 
 the piety and faith of his inner life, urging him to zeal 
 for souls. 
 
 In fact, zeal for souls was the refrain of that retreat. 
 In his conferences and meditations bearing on that virtue 
 he was at his best in eloquent and flowing thought. 'How 
 noble is the end of the Society of Jesus for the salvation 
 and perfection of souls ! It is taken from the life of Jesus. 
 
290 ^Arnold T)amen } S.J. 
 
 It was the end of the Apostles; it was the ambition of 
 St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. 
 
 'And obedience, along with the means offered by our 
 Society, makes it easy to save others. And the souls we 
 help into heaven will forever surround us with their love 
 and gratitude. Oh, what a happy victory and that ever- 
 lasting/ 
 
 Then, after enumerating the virtues and qualities of 
 a good missionary, he asks : 'Who have done much for 
 the greater glory of God? Is it the worldly minded? Is 
 it the eloquent ? The learned ? Or is it the ordinary going 
 priest? No, it is the man of prayer and self-sacrifice. It 
 is the ambassador of God, as we see him in a Peter 
 Claver, or a John Francis Regis, in our first ten Fathers 
 and the thousands that followed them/ 
 
 That Damen himself was such an ambassador of 
 God his people universally believed, and in all their 
 serious troubles, they came to him. The sick were 
 often brought to him and we have many authentic nar- 
 ratives of cures after his prayer and blessing. It was 
 common belief among the people that Damen worked 
 miracles. Mrs. John Griffin, of Chicago, shortly be- 
 fore her recent death, related the following : 
 
 My little girl had a sore on her neck. She cried con- 
 tinuously for three days and nights. She went into spasms. 
 I took her to the doctor, who said it would take at least 
 three months to cure her, and even then there would 
 likely be some after-effects. The little thing seemed to 
 get no relief. Some one said, 'Why not bring the child to 
 Father Damen and have him bless her ?' It was no sooner 
 said than done. I carried my little darling to Father Da- 
 men. He was saying his Office in the yard or garden, but 
 received me with that patriarchal kindness which always 
 distinguished him, looked at the baby and said, 'Why not 
 take her to the doctor? I have no medicine/ 'Well/ said 
 I, 'Father, bless her anyway/ 'Just a minute, then, I will 
 bless her/ He put on his stole and prayed over her and 
 said, 'Get some St. Ignatius water and apply it/ which 
 I did. The affected part grew as big as a pear in three 
 
Some ^Memories of Father T)amen 291 
 
 days, when it broke. The child had stopped crying im- 
 mediately after the blessing, the pain left her and she slept 
 for about twenty-four hours, not having slept before for 
 three days. I took her to the same doctor who had said 
 three months' treatment would scarcely cure her. He was 
 surprised at what he saw. 
 
 Years after, this same little girl, at the close of a 
 retreat Father Damen had given, made her profession 
 before him as a Sister of Charity of the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary at Dubuque, taking the name of Sister 
 M. Sylvester. 
 
 Mr. Charles Branick, an altar boy of the early days, 
 recalls another incident of an apparent answer to 
 Damen's prayer: 
 
 One evening of the year 1862, toward the close of the 
 service in the church, rain began to fall in torrents, so 
 that no one dared to leave the church. Father Damen 
 prayed for the rain to cease until the people got home. 
 The rain stopped until I got to my home, which was about 
 a mile away. I served at the altar that night. 
 
 Father Hillman used to tell of an experience of his 
 own, which happened while he was assisting Damen 
 on the missions. During one of the very large missions 
 in the East, the church was crowded with people wish- 
 ing to go to Confession. The necessity for confessors 
 was imperative, or the people would have to be turned 
 away. At the critical hour, Father Hillman was con- 
 fined to his bed with an excruciating headache. Father 
 Damen came to him and told him of the need in the 
 church. Father Hillman replied that it was impossible 
 for him to move. 
 
 'Would you be willing/ asked Father Damen, 'to 
 say an Our Father every day of your life if God re- 
 moved the headache and made it possible for you to go 
 out and help in the confessions ?' 
 
 Father Hillman said that indeed he would. Father 
 
292 ^Arnold Damen, S.J. 
 
 Damen told him to rise and kneel down. He said a 
 prayer over Father Hillman and blessed him. The head- 
 ache disappeared at once and Father Hillman went to 
 work feeling like a new man. 
 
 Father Thomas Wallace, S. J., gives another in- 
 stance of a remarkable cure : 
 
 When we were youngsters, Joe Rafferty — afterward 
 the well-known Judge Raflerty, who lived in the Jesuit 
 parish on the north side — lived in the same street with 
 me. He contracted a disease of the hip. The doctors could 
 not help him. Apparently he was to be a cripple for life. 
 I remember the case, and how Joe went about with a 
 crutch for several months. Then his folks had recourse 
 to Father Damen. He said a prayer over Joe, and the next 
 day a bit of bone made its way to the surface and was 
 extracted, and Joe was soon running about like the rest 
 of us. All his family were sure that it was a miracle. Many 
 such incidents were told of Father Damen. 
 
 Mrs. Austin O'Malley, of Chicago, tells us of a cure 
 that Father Damen brought to her when she was Alice 
 Comerford, a little girl of eight. Her narrative is given 
 
 verbatim : 
 
 My parents' home was on Winchester Ave., near Jack- 
 son Boulevard, Chicago. Up to my eighth year, I was as 
 healthy and as happy as any other girl of my age. One 
 night I retired without pain or ache. On the following 
 morning I awoke and found my face turned around fac- 
 ing my right shoulder, the bone of my chin resting rigidly 
 on my right shoulder. My parents brought me the best 
 doctors and surgeons in the city, but to no avail. I con- 
 tinued in this state for several months. 
 
 One day as my mother was taking me to the doctor, 
 we met an old Irish woman on State Street. Looking at 
 me with much pity, she inquired how it happened. My 
 mother told her the story. The good old lady thought for 
 a moment and said, 
 
 'There is only one man who can help your child, and 
 if he cannot, then God alone can do so/ 
 
Some ^Memories of Father T>amen 293 
 
 The old lady said the man was Father Damen, who 
 lived at the corner of Twelfth and May Streets. We did 
 not see the doctor, but took the bus to Twelfth and May 
 Streets. There were no street cars in Chicago at that 
 time. We arrived just at noon when the bell rang at the 
 pastoral residence. We asked for Father Damen, who 
 came at once to see us. We told him our errand, how the 
 disfigurement occurred, and how we had tried every pos- 
 sible medical aid and that it all availed nothing. We also 
 told him what the old lady had said, that he could cure 
 me and if not, God alone could. 
 
 Father Damen told us to go into the church and that 
 he would meet us there soon. We went into the church and 
 awaited his coming, mother, grandmother and I, kneeling 
 near the railing. Father Damen was soon in the sanctuary 
 and, opening the middle gate of the Communion railing, 
 invited us to the main altar. We knelt there on the main 
 step, I in the middle. Father Damen, wearing a stole, 
 took a relic and rubbed it over my neck and shoulder, 
 praying at the same time. He also used St. Ignatius water. 
 He told us to make a novena to St. Ignatius. 'She/ mean- 
 ing me, 'is old enough to answer the prayers,' he said. 
 Father Damen began the novena there and then by saying 
 three Our Fathers and Hail Marys. We then retired, my 
 grandmother taking me to her home in Peck Court on 
 the South Side in order that I should make the novena 
 without fail. 
 
 On the fourth or fifth night of the novena I went to 
 bed as usual with my neck as stiff and rigid as a stick of 
 wood, my face looking over my right shoulder. On the 
 next morning I woke to find myself perfectly cured and 
 as if nothing had ever happened. 
 
 I leaped out and screamed with joy, exclaiming T am 
 cured ! I am cured !' I have been the mother of nine sons 
 and five daughters. At this writing seven sons and one 
 daughter are living. Three sons are Vincentians and one 
 daughter a Sister of Charity, B.V.M. Of the other four 
 sons, two are doctors, one a lawyer and another a writer. 
 
 It is easy to see why Damen was not forgotten by 
 his parish in his absence. In fact, while he was away ? 
 
294 ^Arnold T)amen> S.J. 
 
 they were lonesome for him, and the feeling among 
 them was one of waiting for him to come back. Damen 
 had the sufficiently rare quality of being a good 
 traveler and a good home stayer. He was not restless 
 in either atmosphere. He was spiritually amphibious, 
 so to speak. While on his journeys from place to place 
 he was at ease among all sorts and conditions of men. 
 On returning home, he was thoroughly domesticated 
 at once. He never lost his simple tastes, clung to old 
 familiar ways of doing things. Changes of style did 
 not make much impression on his personal habits. Yet 
 he was not a mere laudator temporis acti. He believed 
 in keeping up to the times in all important matters and 
 he was not censorious of people who had other tastes 
 than his own. 
 
 As Chicago emerged from its early diluvian condition, 
 it became quickly conscious of its social possibilities. 
 It began to evolve an elite; it set improved stand- 
 ards of etiquette, became sensitive to precocious city 
 ways. Then there were things that 'simply were not 
 done.' They were taboo to the initiated. One no longer 
 kept cows, for example, nor had turkeys or chickens 
 rambling unintelligently and cacophonously over the 
 premises. But Damen refused to surrender this 
 reminiscence of country life. He was very fond of 
 fowl and for a long time both turkeys and chickens 
 were cared for in the yard near the church. In bad 
 weather the turkeys were assembled in a rear section 
 of the basement of the church, and old parishioners 
 remember how it happened at times, when the congre- 
 gation were wrapped in prayer, that the turkeys would 
 open a choral service of their own, to the distinct an- 
 noyance of the more staid worshipers and the poorly 
 suppressed merriment of the light-minded. 
 
 Two or more cows, also, were appendages of the 
 Damen menage. This attachment to primitive manners 
 was not altogether a matter of sentimentality with 
 
Some ^Memories of Father Damen 295 
 
 Damen. The fowl provided fresh meat, not so easy to 
 obtain then, and the cows assured him of milk and 
 butter for the household. So that there was a little 
 touch of business mixed up even in this rural romance 
 of Damen's. Gradually, however, genuine culture pre- 
 vailed and canned foods finally registered the survival 
 of the fittest. 
 
 All about the west side Father Damen was very 
 popular with his non-Catholic neighbors. This was not 
 only by reason of his own spirit of cheerful neighbor- 
 liness, but because, too, they realized that he put money 
 into their purses. The business and employment of the 
 whole west side, they knew, had been largely furthered 
 by Damen and though the district was preponderantly 
 Catholic, there was no discrimination against non- 
 Catholics in any field. They came out to the 'wild 
 prairie' as they called it, were treated generously and 
 made money. Many of them entered the Church, but 
 those who did not, fell into the spirit of the place and 
 were strong friends of Father Damen. Organized 
 bigotry was a thing unthought of among the Catholics. 
 
 Recently I visited an old gentleman, nearly ninety 
 years of age, who was mourning the loss of his wife, 
 after more than fifty years of married life. He was in 
 the perfect possession of all his faculties, though deeply 
 depressed by sorrow. In an effort to change his 
 thoughts, I chanced the remark that he must have been 
 an early member of the Holy Family parish, though 
 living far from it now. He brightened up at once. His 
 long-departed youth came back into his face, and the 
 first name he mentioned was the name of Damen. 
 
 'Ah, yes/ he said, 'that was sixty-five years ago, 
 and I knew Father Damen well. I was one of his first 
 helpers in the old parish. That was a parish of peace 
 and blessings. The air was blessed there with the 
 prayers of the people. The sidewalks seemed blessed 
 with Father Damen and the priests going about and 
 
296 ^Arnold T)amen, SJ. 
 
 giving blessings to the people asking for them. I re- 
 member the church building and the schools, and how 
 busy and close together the people were, and all the old 
 friends like a big family. It is like yesterday to me 
 now. Will there ever be a parish like it again in the 
 world?' 
 
 These were the people whom Damen could leave and 
 go out on his missions and who would not forget him 
 while he was away. He grew to be a permanent part 
 of their lives. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 HIS GOLDEN JUBILEE 
 
 IN THE fall of 1877, after twenty years of con- 
 tinuous service in the Holy Family parish, Father 
 Damen was appointed Superior of the Missions, with 
 headquarters at St. Ignatius College, Chicago. Thus, 
 while the burden of carrying on the parish was re- 
 moved from him, he was left among the people he 
 loved and where, as he often said, his heart was. He 
 was now sixty-two years of age, but still in the vigor 
 of his prime. His step was as firm, his energy as en- 
 during, his voice as powerful and melodious as when 
 he first came to the parish, twenty years before. Time 
 had thus far taken no visible toll from the olden 
 Damen. He needed his vigor. The missions had grown 
 to such an extent that it took all his time now to keep 
 them manned and organized. To weld this work into 
 permanent shape and to make it ready as a continuous 
 force for American Catholicity was his work during 
 the two years that followed. After that, while still 
 continuing with the missions, he was named Superior 
 of the Sacred Heart parish, which was originally a 
 part of the mother parish of the Holy Family, and was 
 now at the crest of its development, with almost two 
 thousand families. To Damen this was again like be- 
 ing at home. These were also his own children from 
 the start, and his life here was a duplicate of his days 
 in the original parish, directing the church and school 
 work and traveling out on the missions. Thus he went 
 on for eleven more years, to the time of his golden 
 jubilee. 
 
 297 
 
298 ^Arnold T>amen, S.J. 
 
 During the latter part of these years it was that his 
 physical strength was first observed to wane. Nothing 
 more than the steady advance of age, but it was noted 
 with something like surprise, for Damen had seemed 
 to defy age. His voice retained all its golden quality, 
 and altogether in the pulpit he was his old self. He 
 could gather himself together and launch the lightnings 
 of his sermons with all his former grandeur and im- 
 pressiveness. 'He held his audiences,' Bishop Murphy 
 tells us, 'until the very last.' His confessional remained 
 as crowded, his visible energy during his working 
 hours seemed as full-flowing as ever. But the effort 
 cost him more and the reaction after work became 
 steadily more apparent. Still he was never actually 
 unwell, always cheerful, always looking ahead for more 
 souls to capture. 
 
 The golden jubilee of his entrance into the Society 
 of Jesus came on and his friends did not forget it. It 
 has been said, perhaps with a touch of cynicism, that 
 golden jubilees are hosannas over a good stomach. 
 Certainly, merely lasting through a sphere of work for 
 fifty years, however satisfactory to the individual, 
 seems hardly reason enough to call on others to join 
 in jubilee. Too many better men have gone down early 
 in the fight, to allow him to believe that a longer 
 journey is of itself a greater one. This was Damen' s 
 view of himself. He would not admit that he had done 
 anything extraordinary. He was thankful that he had 
 been permitted to labor a long time, but he was an 
 unworthy priest, he said, and nothing but the kindness 
 of God had carried him along. 
 
 His parishioners and friends thought otherwise. 
 They knew that Father Damen had not drifted up to 
 his golden jubilee, but had fought every step of the 
 way at the top of his endeavor, one charge at the 
 enemy after another, and, more often, several charges 
 going on together. This sort of endurance, they judged, 
 
His Q olden Jubilee 299 
 
 was something to marvel at. They gathered about him 
 therefore, on the twenty-first of November, 1887, to 
 celebrate his golden jubilee. Three thousand people 
 filled the church, the galleries and sanctuary, with 
 many more outside who could not get in, for the cele- 
 bration of the Solemn High Mass of thanksgiving in 
 the Holy Family church. Archbishop Feehan was in 
 the sanctuary, and numbers of the Chicago clergy. 
 Father Damen was the celebrant and intoned the Mass 
 with a voice that was still young and resonant. He was 
 assisted by two of his old friends, Father Tschieder 
 as deacon, Father Lalumiere, as subdeacon. Two mis- 
 sionaries, Fathers Schulak and Van Hulst, were 
 deacons of honor. Father Thomas Fitzgerald, of Mar- 
 quette College, Milwaukee, one of Damen's boys whom 
 he directed to the priesthood, preached the sermon. 
 From all over the country, Bishops, priests, and the 
 laity of all classes sent messages of affectionate re- 
 gard. The General of the Society congratulated 
 Damen and the Holy Father gave him his blessing. 
 
 At night, at the dinner, Archbishop Feehan spoke, 
 with much feeling, of his appreciation of Damen, and 
 all he had done for the diocese. It was proposed to 
 found a hospital in honor of Father Damen, and com- 
 mittees were formed and subscriptions started. But 
 Father Damen requested that the money be given to 
 the home and school for the deaf and dumb. 
 
 Later, in the church, another great assemblage 
 gathered for the purpose of allowing the laity to ex- 
 press their appreciation. They were represented by the 
 Honorable William J. Onahan, a leading figure in the 
 Catholic life of Chicago. Mr. Onahan knew Father 
 Damen and his work as intimately as any Catholic in 
 Chicago ; he had co-operated with him in many of his 
 undertakings, and knew at first hand the inner history 
 of the parish. We give a portion of his address. 
 
300 ^Arnold Ttamen, SJ. 
 
 Reverend and Venerable Father Damen: 
 
 On this, your golden jubilee, the members of the par- 
 ish of the Holy Family have assembled to testify their 
 love, their gratitude and their veneration for you, their 
 old-time pastor and benefactor. 
 
 They have come to congratulate you in their own name, 
 in behalf of all your parishioners present or absent, and 
 in the name of the entire city which has been blessed and 
 benefited by your labors. 
 
 They rejoice to see again this well-known figure within 
 this holy sanctuary and to listen once more to the welcome 
 and familiar voice which so often resounded through these 
 aisles. 
 
 This is no time for merely personal panegyric. This 
 holy place, your sacred office, a priest of God's Church, 
 forbid that we should employ in this address any language 
 of extravagant eulogy. This address is to a priest. 
 
 We seek to pay a just tribute to your priestly charac- 
 ter and office, to your pastoral and missionary labors, in 
 the presence of a people to whom all the facts of your 
 life are as the pages of an open book, who would be quick 
 to discern, as they would be sure to condemn, every inac- 
 curacy of statement and any exaggeration of compliment. 
 The bare, unvarnished facts of your life will be your fit- 
 ting and ample eulogy. 
 
 Mr. Onahan then reviews in outline the work of 
 Father Damen as pastor, builder and missionary, and 
 concludes as follows: 
 
 You, sir, have builded beyond the grave. Your memory 
 cannot perish; your monument shall endure in the hearts 
 of a grateful people. The charities which you established 
 and nourished will preserve your memory and character 
 in the hearts of the poor and affiicted. And this great 
 college will remain a perpetual memorial of your zeal 
 for learning and for religion. 
 
 Not to Chicago will the joy of this golden jubilee be 
 confined. From countless homes all over this land prayers 
 of thanksgiving will ascend to heaven today for all the 
 
His Q olden Jubilee 301 
 
 multiplied benefits you have conferred on mankind by 
 your labors during the past fifty years. 
 
 Nor is the account finally closed. Fifty years of labor 
 and upward of seventy years of time have made their 
 mark, and have laid their heavy impress on your once 
 vigorous frame. Your step is not so alert, your voice is 
 no more ringing and powerful as of old; the penalties 
 of time and toil are visible in your stooped form and 
 venerable gray hairs. But notwithstanding the growing 
 infirmities of age, you are still persevering in the crusade 
 of religion and charity. 
 
 In response Father Damen said : 'I am embarrassed 
 to appear before you, because I have received today 
 so many compliments and congratulations which I 
 think I do not deserve. But my heart is full of joy for 
 all the good that has been done here for the past thirty 
 years.' He then recounted some of his experiences and 
 the circumstances of the foundation of the church, 'in 
 a place covered with water lilies and on a street that 
 was more like a canal.' His narration of his early trials 
 was very humorous and excited hearty laughter. He 
 closed by saying, 'Today I lift my heart in gratitude 
 to God for the blessings He has bestowed upon our 
 labors during the last thirty years. I never expected 
 so much gratitude as I have received from you today. 
 And I thank you very much for it.' He then pro- 
 nounced the Papal Benediction, permission having been 
 especially granted to him for the occasion. 
 
 On the next morning the parish of the Sacred Heart 
 took up the celebration with a Solemn High Mass, a 
 large congregation in attendance. In the afternoon 
 Father Damen visited the various schools of the two 
 parishes, received the addresses of the children and 
 gave them his blessing. In the evening the sodalities 
 of the Sacred Heart parish assembled in the church 
 and read addresses to him to which he responded in 
 touching words, ending by imparting the Apostolic 
 Blessing. 
 
302 ^Arnold T)amen> SJ. 
 
 A few years ago, the writer was giving a retreat in 
 a convent of Sisters in the far West. On the last day of 
 the retreat the Mother Superior came and said: 
 
 'Father, we have an old Sister who has been making 
 the retreat until today, when she has become very weak. 
 The dear creature seems worried about something and 
 I wish you could have a little talk with her/ 
 
 I visited the Sister in the infirmary and found her 
 as the Mother Superior had said, almost on the verge 
 of the other world. 
 
 'I am so glad you have come, Father/ she said. 
 'There is something on my mind that is troubling me. 
 I have made the retreat till today, and I have made the 
 resolution to detach myself from everything in this 
 world. I thought I had done this before, but there is 
 one thing that I have not given up yet, and I wish to 
 do it now. It is the thing that is dearest to me and I 
 am going to give it to you, because a Jesuit Father 
 should have it. Here it is/ 
 
 And she carefully placed in my hand a small card, 
 limp and worn. It was the souvenir card of Father 
 Damen's golden jubilee, with his picture on it. 
 
 'He was my best friend/ she said. 'It was he who 
 showed me my vocation/ 
 
 I hesitated to take the card, urging her to keep it as 
 a consolation and an inspiration to prayer in her 
 sickness. 
 
 'No/ she said. T shall not be long in this world now, 
 and this is my last sacrifice/ 
 
 I thanked her for the card and promised to keep it, 
 adding that soon perhaps she would not need the card, 
 as she would meet her old friend in that new country 
 to which she was going. 
 
 'Ah/ the saintly old Sister said, 'if only I could ever 
 reach that country, I should surely meet him. Because 
 he will be there, he will be there/ 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 SPIRITUAL TRAITS 
 
 C^HE instruments raised up by Almighty God for 
 A the accomplishment of His purposes are of two 
 kinds, equally gifted with faith and piety, but from 
 natural temper and talent, education, or other circum- 
 stances, differing in the means by which they promote 
 their sacred cause. The first of these are men of acute 
 and ready mind, with accurate knowledge of human 
 nature, and large plans, and persuasive and attractive 
 bearing, genial, sociable, and popular, endued with 
 prudence, patience, instinctive tact and decision in con- 
 ducting matters, as well as boldness and zeal/ 
 
 Cardinal Newman is writing here a historical sketch 
 of Basil and Gregory, contrasting their natural tem- 
 peraments, and he outlines Basil's in the paragraph 
 above. But it might have been written of Damen as 
 well. It is a most apt description of his natural gifts 
 and temperament. Every phrase of the passage fits him 
 perfectly. 
 
 For Damen was undoubtedly a providential instru- 
 ment in the hands of God for the establishment and 
 the spread of a virile Catholicity in the United States. 
 He appeared at a time when the Catholic religion was 
 in a state of solution in the country, and he was one 
 of the great forces that crystallized it into visible form 
 and potency. East and West, Bishops, priests and the 
 laity alike bore open and unanimous testimony to this. 
 Bishop O'Hara, of Scranton, once called for Father 
 Damen at St. Ignatius College, Chicago. He was in- 
 formed that Damen was engaged for the moment. 'I'll 
 
 303 
 
304 ^Arnold T^ameny S.J. 
 
 wait/ he said. 'I must see Father Damen. He made my 
 diocese for me.' Bishop Foley, of Chicago, said that 
 no one had done the work for Chicago and the West 
 that Damen had done. Among the priests, Damen made 
 a friend of every one he met, not only by reason of his 
 engaging character, but by the indelible stamp of re- 
 ligion and piety he left after his missions. He changed 
 their parishes often from a scrambled, incoherent 
 jumble of aimless, go-as-you-please wanderers into 
 united, well-ordered congregations of steadily devout 
 Catholics. 'Through the letters I receive/ he wrote to 
 the General, 'I learn that almost all, both Catholics and 
 converts, give good example to all about them and are 
 a consolation to their parish priests.' The undisguised 
 reverence, gratitude and affection of the laity for 
 Damen surrounded him all his life, and still is deep in 
 the hearts of the survivors. 
 
 His Superiors equally testified to his zealous and 
 valuable work for the Church. Their estimates of 
 Damen's worth and of the spiritual motives that im- 
 pelled him, are singularly alike. T think God is with 
 him and approves his work,' Father Murphy writes to 
 the General. 
 
 'He is an excellent religious, as well as a splendid 
 missionary, and he continues to perform marvels on 
 the missions. It is evident that the Lord is with him,' 
 writes Father Coosemans. And Father Keller, after 
 some criticism which he admits is tentative and uncer- 
 tain, says that in spite of his own view, he must con- 
 fess that Damen is 'dear to God and is led by the spirit 
 of God/ 
 
 Though Damen did vitally important service in the 
 East, all through its larger cities, it was in the Middle 
 West that he was most needed, and here, we think it 
 may be fairly said, he did the work of an apostle in 
 laying the foundations of Catholicity. The whole west 
 side of Chicago directly or indirectly owes its Catholic 
 
Spiritual Traits 305 
 
 faith to Father Damen. St. Patrick's parish had been 
 founded there before his arrival, but it was only with 
 Damen's appearance on the scene that the real spread 
 and the prosperity of the west side began. The Rever- 
 end P. C. Conway, the present pastor of the Church 
 of the Nativity, Chicago, in his sermon preached in the 
 Holy Family Church on the occasion of the golden 
 jubilee of the parish in 1907, after mentioning Damen 
 as 'the founder and father of this parish and the great 
 west side,' goes on to sum up the growth of the great 
 Catholic west side out of the roots of Damen's original 
 parish : There is no need to lift up columns or shafts to 
 immortalize the Jesuits of Chicago. Lift up your eyes 
 and see. Let their works praise them in the gates. Let 
 the parishes of St. Pius, St. Charles, St. Paul, Blessed 
 Sacrament, St. Malachy, Our Lady of Sorrows, 
 Presentation, St. Agatha, St. Finnbar, St. Agnes and 
 a score of others, profess their filial gratitude; let the 
 thousands and the tens of thousands of the faithful all 
 over the city, who received from you the life of grace 
 and the habit of piety, praise your goodness.' 
 
 Father Conway does not overstate the case for Chi- 
 cago. And if we trace to its sources the immense 
 harvest of Catholicity grown throughout the Middle 
 West in the past fifty years, we shall likewise find a 
 large part of it the growth of the seed planted by 
 Damen in his missions. For many years after Damen's 
 death, his name was a household word in hundreds of 
 towns and parishes in this wide territory. 
 
 Newman, in one of his letters, remarks, 'A man may 
 have many good points, but yet have no interior/ 
 What he implies, of course, is that a man may do many 
 striking, even useful things and yet personally merit 
 very little honor or credit for them. He does them out 
 of vanity, or self-interest, or again simply for the 
 natural impulse he has for keeping himself interested 
 and busy. It is a game he is playing, as a child amuses 
 
306 ^Arnold Dennett, SJ. 
 
 itself among its toys. Such a man does good by acci- 
 dent. His real intention is to keep himself in the public 
 eye, or to avoid boredom. St. Paul is aware of this 
 danger of spiritual canker, when he tells how he has 
 to watch himself, lest after preaching to others, he 
 himself might become a castaway. 
 
 Father Damen, too, was alive to this possibility of 
 allowing external activities to choke the fountain of 
 his inner life. He kept his own soul under steady ob- 
 servation, lest he might be making motions without 
 any spiritual meaning to them. If he preached the 
 Gospel to others, we have every evidence that he took 
 good care to preach it to himself first. 
 
 The mainspring of his life was prayer. Father Wil- 
 liam Wallace remembers him as 'always saying his 
 beads. He seemed to have them in his hand all the time, 
 whenever it was possible. I recall, too, his custom of 
 kneeling before the altar during novenas and missions 
 in the church, and praying aloud, with outstretched 
 arms. And I used to wonder, as a youngster, how he 
 could keep them out so long.' 
 
 Whether at home or out on the missions, Damen 
 invariably rose in the morning at four o'clock. This 
 meant that when Confessions kept him up until mid- 
 night, as frequently happened, he had but three or four 
 hours of sleep. Upon rising, he made an hour's medita- 
 tion and then said his Mass. He heard one, and often 
 two, Masses of thanksgiving and then went to the 
 confessional, or to the pulpit to preach the morning 
 sermon, at about half past eight. And the rest of the 
 day, devoted to the people, was likewise filled with 
 prayer. 
 
 His two principal intentions in his prayers, as we 
 find them in his written notes, were never forgotten. 
 Ut felicem mortem in Societate .obtineam, et ne unquatn 
 voluntarie Deum offendam. (That I may die a happy 
 death in the Society and that I may never willingly 
 
Spiritual 'Traits 307 
 
 offend God.) As we may infer from the constant use 
 of his rosary, he had a childlike and tender devotion 
 to the Blessed Virgin. When starting out from home, 
 he recited her Litany. And on seating himself in the 
 train, he used to take out his big beads and begin to 
 say the Rosary. The non-Catholic passengers looked 
 at him with curiosity. 'What is the old man going to 
 do now?' a passenger was overheard asking. 'Is he 
 counting his money ? ■ At the end of a set of resolutions 
 he wrote during one of his retreats, we have a touching 
 little prayer of his, that reveals his intimate affection 
 for the Mother of God. O Maria, dulcis Mater Mea, O 
 amor mens, obtine tnihi, obsecro per viscera tniseri- 
 cordiae tuae, per sanguinem Filii tui, ob tineas tnihi 
 perseverantiam in his resolutionibus tneis. (O Mary, 
 my sweet Mother, O my love, obtain for me, I beseech 
 you through your Mother's mercy, through the blood 
 of your Son, please obtain for me perseverance in these 
 resolutions of mine.) 
 
 Devotion to the saints of the Society of Jesus came 
 next to his love for the Blessed Virgin. Shortly after 
 his ordination he took up the practice of reading the 
 lives of Jesuit saints during the week preceding their 
 respective feasts, and whenever he could he made 
 each the subject of his sermon on the Sunday follow- 
 ing. St. Francis Regis, whose work as missionary was 
 carried on along parallel lines to Damen's, was his 
 particular patron and he followed closely the spirit of 
 Regis in all practicable details. 
 
 We may remark here that Father Damen took very 
 little time for any except spiritual reading. He read 
 Catholic papers and magazines, and did much on his 
 missions to promote their reading by the people. But 
 he passed by the daily papers altogether. He was too 
 close to human life to bother about the papers. He 
 could not see why he should waste his time reading at 
 
30 8 ^Arnold Ttameny SJ. 
 
 second hand what he was constantly meeting and striv- 
 ing to remedy at first hand. 
 
 Despite his long hours of daily labor and the energy 
 he spent in them, Damen was most abstemious in the 
 matter of food. It is astonishing, in fact, to see how 
 he could go ahead under the regime he set himself. 
 When a young priest, he bound himself by vow to fast 
 on the vigils of the festivals of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception, the Sacred Heart, St. Ignatius, St. Francis 
 Xavier and St. Francis Regis; these, in addition to a 
 Lenten and an Advent fast. He abstained entirely from 
 the more delicate dishes, taking only the simplest sus- 
 taining fare. As years went on, he undertook a daily 
 fast, excepting Sundays and feast days, and he never 
 relaxed from this during fifteen years of the most 
 fatiguing labors of the missions. Finally, at the age of 
 seventy, he moderated these fasts at the suggestion 
 of the Father Provincial, but he kept scrupulously to 
 his other penances. 
 
 Although during most of his active life Damen was 
 in a position of directing others, he proved himself 
 easily flexible to commands when conditions were re- 
 versed. Wherever there was any question of stepping 
 out of the common routine of action, even in very 
 small things, he never did so without permission. He 
 had the common sense idea, which is also the religious 
 idea, of letting his superiors know where he was and 
 what he was doing, and he adhered to this idea con- 
 sistently. 
 
 He handled a large amount of money in his life, but 
 it was never contagious. His unusual ability was em- 
 ployed solely in placing what he got so as to do the 
 greatest amount of spiritual good to others. There was 
 no luxury in his manner of life. He lived in a bare 
 room, simply furnished with what was just necessary. 
 This was at home. Out on the missions, though he 
 never mentioned the subject one way or another, he 
 
Spiritual traits 309 
 
 took the fortunes of war. His life there was, at best, 
 a series of perchings and flittings from point to point, 
 very frequently in those days offering plenty of the 
 hardships of the most primitive life. 
 
 No matter how things broke, Damen's habitual 
 temper in all weather was a mixture of vigor and cheer- 
 fulness. He brushed through difficulties as through 
 cobwebs, hardly noticing obstacles that to others seemed 
 a blockade. His basic formula for all problems was 
 prayer and hard work. 'When you went out on the 
 missions with Father Damen,' said Father Hillman, 
 'you knew you were working. But he never asked for 
 anything to be done that he did not do himself, and 
 more of it than anyone else. You didn't need an alarm 
 clock on those missions. Damen was the alarm clock. 
 At four-thirty sharp every morning, . . . knock, 
 knock, at your door and a call Benedicamus Domino 
 that would shake the sleep out of your system in a jiffy. 
 You could follow him by the sound, going from door 
 to door, and you were at once on the go, maybe till 
 midnight, in another day's work of chasing the devil. 
 You were so busy that you didn't have time to get 
 tired, with Damen a step ahead of you all the way. 
 Sometimes you'd get peevish over the constant going, 
 when your nerves weren't just right. But when you 
 thought over it, you saw you couldn't logically com- 
 plain when you looked at the way Damen was going. 
 He was the electricity that kept you on the move and, 
 when it was over, you felt that a big work had been 
 done, and you were proud to have been in it.' 
 
 In the brief official record of those days in the Holy 
 Family residence, which is supposed to be only a suc- 
 cession of statements of bald facts, jottings to note the 
 track of past events, the historian could not keep from 
 breaking out into comments on the quality of Damen's 
 work: Ita arduus labor et strenui conattts Patris 
 Superioris; zelus Patris Superioris non potuit quin; 
 
310 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 nulla difficultate, quamvis magna, victus; multo flagrans 
 ardore; nulla unquam devictus difficultate, (The hard 
 work and the vigorous efforts of Father Superior; 
 zeal that would not be denied; intense and burning 
 energy; driving through every difficulty) are some of 
 the changes rung on the phrases indicating the indomi- 
 table spirit of Father Damen. 
 
 His severity upon himself extended even beyond 
 the ordinary day's work. In the early 'nineties, shortly 
 after Damen' s death, one of the Jesuit scholastics, 
 acting as prefect at St. Mary's College, Kansas, was 
 talking with a group of boys on the playground. The 
 conversation ran upon missions, and the boys began 
 to talk of the Jesuit missionaries they had known. One 
 of the boys said : 
 
 T knew Father Damen. ' 
 
 'Where did you meet him?' asked the prefect. 
 
 'He gave a mission in our parish. He was a saint/ 
 said the boy. 
 
 'Why do you say that?' 
 
 'Well, I was an altar boy during that mission/ said 
 the boy, 'and I had to go to Father Damen's room to 
 tell him when it was time for him to come out for the 
 sermon. And every day I had to wait outside his door 
 for a little while before I knocked, because I could 
 hear Father Damen in there scourging himself. When 
 I heard it the first time I was scared, but then I remem- 
 bered that's what I read the saints used to do, and 
 Father Damen was doing that because he was a saint, 
 too.' 
 
 Instances of what appear to have been supernatural 
 aids given him in making conversions are related by 
 Damen himself. He told them as strange occurrences 
 that he could not explain. 
 
 T was giving Holy Communion/ he said, 'to a large 
 congregation of people on a mission. When the Sacred 
 Host was placed on the tongue of one woman, it be- 
 
Spiritual Traits 311 
 
 came as if paralyzed. I removed the Host and the 
 seeming paralysis disappeared. I made another attempt 
 to give her the Sacrament. The same thing happened 
 again. I kept this person in view and sent for her to 
 come to the sacristy after Mass. 'Why,' I questioned, 
 'did you not receive the Sacred Host ?' 
 
 T could not move my tongue,' was the answer. 
 
 'Have you been to Confession?' I asked. 
 
 'No, not for many years,' was the reply. 
 
 A similar happening occurred on another occasion 
 while he was giving Holy Communion. Passing along 
 the railing, he noticed a place left unoccupied. This 
 happened a second and a third time. After the Mass, 
 a woman came to the sacristy and demanded, 'Why 
 did you not give me Holy Communion?' 
 
 'How long is it since your last Confession?' asked 
 Father Damen. 
 
 'Eighteen years/ was the reply. 
 
 One of the criticisms made of Damen as Superior 
 was that he was too severe. 'It is said,' writes the 
 General to Father Coosemans, 'that Father Damen has 
 not sufficient regard for the feelings of those under 
 him/ Father Coosemans, replying to this, says that 
 the Community directed by Damen is 'orderly and re- 
 ligious. He himself is a good religious. This I know 
 from certain knowledge.' A little later, in 1862, Coose- 
 mans writes: 'Father Damen has improved, I think, 
 in the government of the residence. There are still 
 some complaints, however, which I have frankly laid 
 before him, and he has received them like a good 
 Jesuit.' 
 
 The foundation for these complaints was very likely 
 Damen's occasional bluntness of speech and brusque- 
 ness of manner that we have noticed before. Moreover, 
 his extraordinary energy of temperament, with his 
 great physical strength, could also make him forget at 
 times the physical limits of others, and perhaps expect 
 
312 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 too much of them, not remembering that others were 
 less enduring than he. But there does not seem to be the 
 least reason to believe that Damen was in any sense 
 tyrannical. The evidence we have in his own official 
 reports of his house is all to the contrary. For exam- 
 ple, he was warmly appreciative of the co-operation he 
 received. 
 
 'Our Community is doing very well/ he writes. 'All 
 are very exact in the observance of the rules and of 
 the Constitutions. They work with great zeal for the 
 glory of God and the salvation of souls/ 
 
 Again, in 1866, he writes : 'With regard to our 
 Chicago residence, it has grown very much in things 
 temporal; in matters spiritual, if not equally so, never- 
 theless, with the help of Divine Providence, it makes 
 rapid progress. We should be able to make better head- 
 way, and thus far we confess our spiritual advance is 
 light. Yet we strive constantly to observe the rules, and 
 I am sure the spiritual exercises are faithfully per- 
 formed by all the members of the Community. I con- 
 fess that silence is not as strictly observed as our 
 Constitutions impose, and as I desire and very often 
 command. There is no reason to complain of the dis- 
 obedience of anyone, for all freely and willingly allow 
 themselves to be led by holy obedience. If any defect 
 occurs at times on this point, it is very rarely. For 
 the rest, considering the weakness of human nature 
 and the inconstancy of the human heart, we owe 
 great thanks to God for His goodness and His mercy 
 toward us/ 
 
 In all his reports we find not a single official com- 
 plaint against the personal conduct of any of his Com- 
 munity. The tone of his letters is neither crabbed nor 
 important. If he mentions defects, he rather leans to 
 minimizing than to exaggerating them. The general 
 idea he gives is that all are doing their best. On the 
 other hand, he praises justly and cordially: 'Our 
 
Spiritual Traits 313 
 
 schools are the admiration of the whole city. They are 
 under the care of Father Andrew O'Neil and his 
 brother, Brother Thomas O'Neil, who possess great 
 talent for this important work/ 
 
 He writes also in defense of Father Smarius ; 'I am 
 not unaware that your Paternity has heard some com- 
 plaints lately concerning good Father Smarius. But 
 believe me, Reverend Father, his defects were a little 
 exaggerated. He is a man of good will, has the sim- 
 plicity of a dove, though perhaps not always the pru- 
 dence of the serpent. He has a tender and sympathetic 
 heart and his actions are well intentioned, though by 
 reason of an occasional lack of prudence, they are 
 badly interpreted. He is a man of great power of ac- 
 tion and so obedient that he will correct whatever 
 failings are found in him/ 
 
 And when writing of his parishioners, as we have 
 seen, he cannot find words to express his high estimate 
 of their character and their achievements. 
 
 It seems certain, as far as we can judge, that Father 
 Damen's general character cannot be estimated as 
 severe. The opposite impression, as a matter of fact, 
 prevailed with all who knew him even casually — the 
 impression of a character of peculiar charm. I recall, 
 when a boy, being one of a committee assigned to wait 
 upon Father Damen on the occasion of his golden 
 jubilee. We were to offer him the congratulations of 
 the St. Ignatius College students, and most important 
 of all in the boys* minds, we were to get a holiday. We 
 were told that the best time to meet him would be after 
 dinner in the recreation room of the Fathers. We went 
 as instructed, and we found the Fathers seated in a 
 semicircle, with Father Damen occupying the place of 
 honor near Father Higgins, who was then President 
 of the school. It was rather a formidable group to us 
 boys, and we may have shown some preliminary signs 
 of being stalled at the prospect. At any rate I remem- 
 
314 ^Arnold T)amen } SJ. 
 
 ber Father Damen nodding and smiling at us as soon 
 as we entered the room, and looking around at the 
 other Fathers in a boyish manner, as if to say, 'Aren't 
 they a fine bunch of fellows! Be good to them/ He 
 put us at ease. We made our little address to him as 
 scheduled, and when it came to the holiday part of it, 
 we turned to the President, as the legal holiday giver. 
 But Father Higgins gracefully waved his hand toward 
 Father Damen, and said, 'Tomorrow the college is 
 Father Damen's. He may do as he wishes with it.' 
 Father Damen became radiant with a boyish joy. He 
 bowed to Father Higgins, and said to us, 'Father 
 Rector gives me the school tomorrow, and' — pushing 
 his two hands out to us exactly like a boy sharing 
 something with other boys — 'now I give it to you. I 
 don't know what you will do with it.' We assured him 
 that we could not think of anything else to do with the 
 school in this case than to use it for a holiday. 'Ah/ 
 said he, laughingly, 'I wish you many happy days, if 
 not all holidays/ And he gave us a blessing. It is not 
 easy to forget the meeting. He was patriarchal and 
 youthful together and the whole room seemed alight 
 and vibrant with his childlike good feeling. Charm is 
 the only word that can express it. 
 
 A note sent from Vancouver, B. C, written by 
 Mother Sheridan shortly before her death, contains 
 the following: 
 
 'Father Damen was very true to his friends. He had 
 a little case, containing some precious relics, and he 
 promised Mother Neiderkorn that if he received per- 
 mission he would leave it to her after his death. Now 
 she did not see him for a number of years before his 
 call to heaven and naturally thought the matter was 
 completely lost sight of. What was her surprise, shortly 
 after his death, to receive the valued reliquary, sent 
 her by Father Fitzgerald in compliance with the re- 
 quest of Father Damen!' 
 
Spiritual Traits 315 
 
 On four different occasions Damen's name was 
 prominently mentioned for a bishopric, once for St. 
 Louis, once for Detroit, and twice for Chicago. The 
 second time Damen's name came up for the Chicago 
 diocese, he settled the possibility in a rather dramatic, 
 but decisive, manner. We quote the story exactly as 
 we received it: 
 
 You remember that most lovable Father Carroll, who 
 paid us a visit when we were studying philosophy — the 
 Jesuit from the Eastern Province, crippled by rheumatism 
 — was wheeled about in his chair. He made his way over 
 to our recreation room. Fine sense of humor, delightful 
 raconteur, loved by all in his own Province. 
 
 On that occasion of his visit to us, he told of how, as 
 a scholastic, a' little fellow, he passed through Chicago and 
 paid a visit to St. Ignatius College. Father Damen was 
 Superior. It was the feast of St. Ignatius. In those days 
 a large number of the diocesan clergy used to meet at 
 dinner on St. Ignatius day. It was a great feast day. 
 Bishop Duggan had become completely incapacitated. 
 New Bishop talked of. Many of the clergy wished Father 
 Damen as next Bishop. Well, Father Carroll told how 
 Damen welcomed him — took him up in his arms, brought 
 him down to the refectory and gave him a seat of honor. 
 It was a feast of the good old style, a homecoming. Then 
 speeches. One of the clergy mentioned Father Damen for 
 next Bishop. Great applause. At the end came Father 
 Damen's speech. He thanked all for their charity and 
 kindly feeling, but said it would be a big mistake on their 
 part to vote for him as Bishop. Because, he said, he was 
 sure that if he were made Bishop, one of his first acts 
 would be to suspend several who were present there in 
 the refectory. Quite an impressive remark. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 LAST DAYS 
 
 AFTER the celebration of his golden jubilee, Father 
 ■ Damen continued to lead his band of missionaries 
 for another year. But he was visibly losing strength. 
 Thirty years of forced marches all over the country, 
 with their rapid changes of climate and their eighteen- 
 hour working-day throughout, finally wore their way 
 inside the hitherto impregnable physical defense. At 
 the end of the mission year, in the summer of 1888, 
 he was sent to Creighton College, Omaha, in the hope 
 that the change of climate would be of benefit. 
 
 In the fall of the year he came to Florissant to make 
 his annual retreat. It was the last retreat he made. An 
 incident of that retreat remains still clear in my 
 memory. I was a novice then and, according to routine, 
 the novices had a free day each week when they could 
 play games, go for walks through the countryside and 
 in general take the open air. One of these free days 
 occurred during Father Damen' s retreat, a still autumn 
 day, the air clear and clean, the leaves partly fallen 
 and golden underfoot, the woods a riot of glorious 
 color. Just the day for a good walk. Before starting, 
 the custom was to make a short visit to the Blessed 
 Sacrament in the Community chapel. As I stepped 
 inside the chapel, I saw Father Damen near the altar 
 in a shadowy corner, absorbed in prayer. We went off 
 on our walk and after two hours returned. Entering 
 the chapel for another visit, I saw Damen in the same 
 place, his eyes fixed on the tabernacle, oblivious of 
 everything else about him. The brilliant beauty of 
 
 316 
 
Last T)ays 317 
 
 that day could not tempt him from the spot. And I 
 found out that, outside of the formal meditations which 
 he made in his room, he spent nearly all the day thus 
 praying in the chapel. He seemed to me then to be 
 very near the gate of heaven. 
 
 But he could not give up the missions. His idea of 
 strength was that it was something to expend, not to 
 conserve, and while he had any of it left at all, he kept 
 to his former system of expending it. Although he was 
 relieved of the responsibility of directing the missions, 
 he obtained the consent of his Provincial to go out into 
 Nebraska and the neighboring states and give missions 
 by himself. He was back where he had begun — alone 
 on the missions again, but now shorn of his vigor and 
 all but dragging himself from one small town to an- 
 other across the prairies of the then far West. It is 
 evident that he retained, at least, all his irrepressible 
 daring. He could no longer stand in the pulpit and had 
 to remain seated during his sermons. But once started, 
 they tell us, the ancient mission fires blazed up again, 
 and for the time, he held his audiences under the old 
 spell of his best days. 
 
 But the thought of the danger that constantly beset 
 him, thus isolated and most probably without any pos- 
 sibility of help in the event of a sudden emergency, 
 worried the Provincial. In the spring of 1889, while 
 Father Damen was working in the diocese of his friend, 
 Bishop Burke of Cheyenne, Wyoming, the Provincial 
 wrote to him and told him that he was very anxious 
 about him, alone and in feeble health and far away 
 from any Jesuit house. The Provincial had good reason 
 to be anxious. I remember Bishop Burke, on a visit to 
 Florissant, describing his young diocese at that time 
 as a vast area of windswept sandy desert flanked by 
 barren hills, where wholesome food was a rarity and 
 where they sold water by the pail. 
 
 Damen did not appear to notice these evident draw- 
 
3 1 8 ^Arnold T>amen y SJ. 
 
 backs, however. He replied to the Provincial very 
 humbly, expressing his entire readiness to start at 
 once for Omaha or St. Louis if the Provincial said 
 the word, but begging at the same time to be left at 
 the work so near his heart. The Provincial was touched 
 at this request, felt that Damen would be happier as 
 he was, and allowed him to go on. 
 
 But it was not to be for long. Father Damen was 
 giving a mission in Evanston, Wyoming, and was in 
 the act of giving Holy Communion at its closing Mass, 
 on June 4, 1889, when a stroke of paralysis took him 
 at the altar rail. With the kind assistance of the pastor, 
 Reverend C. Fitzgerald, he managed to reach Cheyenne 
 two days later. There he was met by the President of 
 Creighton College, Father Thomas Fitzgerald, and Mr. 
 John A. Creighton, who brought him with every atten- 
 tion to Omaha. 
 
 For several days after he reached home he tried to 
 believe that he was his old self. He was cheerful and 
 firmly believed that he would recover and go back to 
 his work once more. But he had preached his last 
 sermon. Assisted by one of the Fathers, he said Mass 
 up to June thirteenth, and on that day he said his last 
 Mass likewise. He still hoped for recovery, though he 
 now recognized his case as serious and he asked for 
 Extreme Unction. He was anointed on the twelfth of 
 June. He began steadily to decline and the remaining 
 months were given to his preparation for death. He 
 heard Mass every day and received Holy Communion, 
 enduring extreme thirst each night, without a murmur, 
 until the five o'clock Mass. And all the day he kept 
 praying. 
 
 Father Fitzgerald, his Superior, wrote of his last 
 days: 
 
 He was a source of great edification to all, during his 
 long illness. He frequently expressed a desire to get well 
 and work more; but it was in no spirit of complaint or 
 
Last Days 319 
 
 repining over his condition. He suffered very resignedly 
 and patiently, and the amount of suffering he was called 
 upon to endure was at times truly appalling and fearful. 
 I admired Father Damen very much in his missionary 
 life for his many grand traits, but I admired him much 
 more in his sickness, or, rather, our admiration passed 
 into reverence, seeing in him, as we did, the embodiment 
 of the highest religious virtues in the midst of the severest 
 trials. Naturally he feared and dreaded suffering, and 
 before it came he spoke of it with much alarm, humbly 
 protesting his powerlessness to withstand it. But when it 
 did come, all his fears proved groundless, for he bore his 
 trials with the patience of a saint and the endurance of 
 a martyr. 
 
 Father Thomas Wallace, who was with Father 
 Damen in Omaha during four months of his last sick- 
 ness, writes: 
 
 As a novice I spent four months in Omaha. Father 
 Damen was there, his last illness on him. I left Omaha in 
 November. He died on January 1st. But during my stay 
 I was with him a great deal. At his request, for several 
 weeks I read to him every morning for half an hour. 
 Then, as he was confined to his chair, I rolled the wheel 
 chair to the chapel and there, before the altar, read one 
 of the visits of St. Alphonsus Liguori. We returned to 
 his room and I read to him again, from a little magazine — 
 I think it was called the Holy Child — all about missions 
 in China, etc. How grateful he was every morning ! What 
 a real delight to him to make that visit! It was an event. 
 And when I read to him about the work going on in the 
 missions, how he wept — the big chair shook. 
 
 I asked him what he was crying about, said to him that 
 it was the will of God that he shouldn't be doing that 
 work any more, and so on. He said that at least he could 
 sit in his chair there, and pray for them and say his beads 
 there, and console them. He always had his beads with 
 him. Certainly a man of the most vivid faith. 
 
 He was always patient and pleasant. One moment he'd 
 be telling how he dreamed that he appeared before Jesus 
 
320 ^Arnold T)amen> SJ. 
 
 Christ for judgment, and the next he was telling you 
 some anecdote — something funny — that happened in the 
 old parish on Twelfth Street. The diocesan clergy held 
 their retreat at Creighton and went to Mass in our chapel. 
 Father Damen was always present in his chair near the 
 altar, at that Mass. The priests thought that was the best 
 part of the retreat. They were wonderfully edified by 
 him. He answered the Mass prayers with the acolytes, 
 tears welling up from his simple heart. Once in his room 
 and once in the chapel he had me kneel and he asked God 
 to drive away the headaches. And you may believe me, 
 those were real prayers. 
 
 For a month before the end, Father Damen found 
 it impossible to lie down without great pain and danger 
 of suffocation. This forced him to remain in his wheel- 
 chair constantly. On Christmas day, however, his con- 
 dition seemed to improve; a flash of his youthful vigor 
 returned and he was more like his old self than he had 
 been for some time. He was able to attend the Solemn 
 High Mass in the church, his chair being rolled to a 
 point in the sacristy from which he could see the priests 
 at the altar. Tears of joy ran down his cheeks while 
 he was hearing this Mass. During the whole day he 
 felt so well that at the dinner hour he expressed the 
 wish to join the Community in the refectory and to 
 dine with them. Attended by Brother Delaney, who 
 cared for him throughout his sickness, he sat near the 
 Rector, as happy as a child to be with the Community 
 once more. 
 
 It was his last time — the final upleap of the flame 
 before it was extinguished. Immediately after Christ- 
 mas he began to sink rapidly. Paralysis made rapid 
 headway. His mind wandered from time to time; but 
 he was perfectly conscious on New Year's morning, 
 when he received the Viaticum, shortly after midnight. 
 As day approached, there was a last feeble rally of his 
 strength. He had not heard Mass, he said, and he 
 
hast Days 321 
 
 wished to be at the solemn services in the church. A 
 final relapse came on quickly after this, and from dawn 
 until ten o'clock he steadily drew on toward the happy 
 death he had prayed for so often. He was conscious 
 to within a few moments of the end and prayed audibly 
 as long as speech remained. His last intelligible words 
 were Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my life 
 and my sufferings/ one of his favorite ejaculations. 
 
 When the end appeared to be but a matter of min- 
 utes, the Community assembled in the room to assist 
 in the prayers for the dying. Father Damen retained 
 consciousness throughout and when the name of Jesus 
 was spoken to him, or a pious ejaculation, he slightly 
 inclined his head, until, a little before ten o'clock, he 
 died. 
 
 He was buried at Florissant, near Father De Smet, 
 his friend from boyhood, and near many of his old 
 companions, the founders and builders of the Jesuit 
 province of the West. 
 
 The present writer was at his graveside as cross- 
 bearer the day of Damen's burial. In addition to the 
 Jesuit Community, a number of friends from St. Louis 
 and a delegation of men from Chicago were there. 
 As the body was about to be lowered into the grave, 
 one of the men from this delegation, I think it was 
 Mr. John Garvey, stepped forward and reverently 
 kissed the wooden box that enclosed the coffin — the 
 last affectionate salute to Damen from the Holy 
 Family parish. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Accomplishments, summary of, 
 
 81 
 Acolytes, incident of the two, 
 
 i8of. 
 Acolythical Society of Holy 
 
 Family Church, 122, 123, 141, 
 
 185 
 Aelen, Father, 30 
 Agatha, Sister Mary, isif., 154 
 Albany, mission at, 235 
 America described by De Smet, 
 
 i6f. 
 
 Bakewell, Judge Robert, on 
 
 Father Smarius, 214 
 Band, Holy Family, 16 if. 
 Battle Creek, Mich., mission in, 
 
 223 
 Beckx, Father, letters to, 83f., 
 88, 91, 93, 126, 133, i7off., 
 216, 220, 224ft"., 228ff. ; replies 
 regarding Damen's collecting 
 of funds, 276 
 Bethalto, mission at, 237 
 Bishop, suggested as, 175, 315 
 Bishops, the, Damen's friend- 
 ship with, 121 
 Bissell, Governor, 215; funeral 
 
 sermon over, 251ft". 
 Blessed Virgin Mary, his devo- 
 tion to, 15, 36, 43 
 Boston, missions in, 235, 237 
 Bouchard, Father John, 91 
 Boudreaux^ Father, 51, 53, 236 
 Boulder, mission at, 237 
 Boys, his dealings with, i8sf. 
 Brabant, 13! 
 Brady, Mrs., 104 
 Branick, Charles, 291 
 
 Breda, 14 
 
 Bronsgeest, Father Henry, 236 
 
 Brooklyn, missions in, 179, 223, 
 
 234, 237 
 'Brothers' School', the, 139, 
 
 141 
 Bull's Head, the, 64, 65m 
 Bunker Hill, 111., mission at, 
 
 237 
 Burke, Bishop, 317 
 Buscher, Anthony, 87 
 Buschots, Father, 26 
 
 Carmody, Michael, 155!, 161 
 Carrell, Bishop, 120 
 Carroll, Father, 315 
 Carse, Robert, 120 
 Catechism quiz, a, 143ft". 
 Central City, mission at, 237 
 Chicago fire, the, 177ft". 
 Chicago ^ Mail and Post on 
 
 Catholic schools, I54f. 
 Chicago, young, 55ft"., missions 
 
 in, 91 ; discomforts of, ioof. 
 Cholera at St. Louis, 44 
 'Church or Bible*, Damen's lec- 
 ture on, 255f. 
 Cincinnati, O., mission in, 223, 
 
 232 
 Cincinnati, Second Provincial 
 
 Council of, 201 
 Circleville, O., mission in, 223 
 Cleveland Cathedral, mission at, 
 
 220 
 Closing exercises, I57ff. 
 Coghlan, Father, 23<Sf. 
 Comerford, Alice, 292 
 Condon, Father, 237 
 Confession, sermon on, 39L, 
 
 264f. 
 
 323 
 
324 
 
 Index 
 
 Confidence in God's providence, 
 108 
 
 Connell, Joseph A., writes im- 
 pression of Father Damen, 
 iogf. 
 
 Converse, Father, 224, 226 
 
 Converts, 92, 113, 129, 170, 194, 
 204, 217, 219, 224, 233, 235, 
 237, 244, 248f.; method with, 
 2381. 
 
 Conway, Father, on Damen, 192, 
 305 
 
 Coolidge, ex-President, on re- 
 ligious education, 136 
 
 Coosemans, Father, 164L, 168, 
 175, 202, 235, 304, 311 
 
 Coppens, Fat) .r, on Damen's 
 preaching, 37, 48; on burning 
 of school, 138; on Chicago 
 fire, 180; on faith of people, 
 181 
 
 Corbett, Father Michael, 51, 19, 
 
 185 
 Corcoran, Brother Martin, 139 
 Creed, William, 100 
 Creighton College, at, 316 
 Creighton, John A., 318 
 'Cures' of Damen, 2Qoff. 
 Cushing, Michael, 174 
 
 Damen, S. J., Arnold : a mission 
 sermon, 1 ; homeland, 6ff . ; 
 birth and early life, I2ff.; at 
 college, 15L; enters Society 
 of Jesus, 19 ; arrives at Floris- 
 sant, Mo., 20; life at, 23ff.; 
 letter to his parents, 25ft.; 
 as a novice, 3 iff.; profession, 
 32; as a teacher, 32ft. ; early 
 years in priesthood, 36ff. ; as 
 assistant at St. Francis Xa- 
 vier's, St. Louis, 27ff. ; as pas- 
 tor, 4off. ; his preaching, 48ft. ; 
 mission in Chicago, 5iff. ; in- 
 vited to start parish, 6 iff.; 
 starts Holy Family parish, 
 Chicago, 71 ; building the 
 church, 78ff. ; at work in the 
 parish, 98ff. ; completes Holy 
 
 Family Church, 120; as Su- 
 perior, I22ff.; and his critics, 
 i26ff.; restores an interdicted 
 parish, I29ff.; builds St. Ig- 
 natius College, i64ff.; goes to 
 Europe to arrange a loan, 
 171 ff. ; vow for escape of his 
 church from fire, I78ff. ; 
 builds Sacred Heart church 
 and residence, 181 ; his pas- 
 toral methods, i84ff . ; gives 
 occasional missions, 203f . ; 
 his method, 2o8ff. ; his mis- 
 sionary career, 2i2ff. ; vari- 
 ous missions, 232ft.; com- 
 pared with Smarius, 245 ff.; 
 lecture of, 255! ; defends 
 himself against critics, 275 ff.; 
 memories of, 284ff.; golden 
 jubilee of, 2075. ; spiritual 
 traits of, 303ff. ; last days, 316 
 Daughters of the Heart of 
 
 Mary, 175 
 Davenport, la., mission at, 223, 
 
 237 
 Debts, defense of his, I26f. 
 De Kalb, 111., mission in, 223 
 Delaney Brothers, 320 
 De Nef, Pierre Jean, 15 
 Denver, mission at, 237 
 De St. Palais, Bishop, 120 
 De Smet, Father, pleads for 
 America, i6f. ; gathers mis- 
 sion band, 19; goes to Indian 
 mission, 26ff. ; defends Damen 
 in letter, 46f. ; on the panic, 
 76; on missions, 200; burial 
 place of, 321 
 Detroit, mission at, I93f., 237 
 D'Hoop, Francis, 19, 26 
 Dillon, Father Matthew, on Ca- 
 thedral mission, 5 if. 
 Donaghoe, Rev. T. J., isof., 152 
 Driscoll, Father, 203, 221 
 Druyts, Father, letters to, 64L, 
 82, 83, 85, 89, n8f., 127, 201, 
 202f., 212 
 Du Bourg, Bishop, 22 
 Dubuque, la., mission in, 223 
 Duggan, Bishop, 75, 120, 174 
 
Index 
 
 325 
 
 Duparque, Father David, 19 
 Dwyer, James, 157 
 
 East St. Louis, mission at, 237 
 Edina, Mo., mission at, 237 
 Education, Damen and, 76i., 
 
 135 ff. ; in his schools, 158; 
 
 and the Church, igsf. 
 Elder, Bishop, 236 
 English, mastery of, 49 
 Evanston, Wyo., mission at, 318 
 Evansville, Ind., mission at, 248 
 
 church interdicted, 130; Da- 
 men restores order, 131 
 
 Gibbons, Cardinal, on schools of 
 Holy Family parish, 122 
 
 Gillespie, mission at, 237 
 
 Gleizal, Father John, 19, 44; 
 writes to General regarding 
 missions, 200 
 
 Golden jubilee of Damen, 297 
 
 Grace, Bishop, 120 
 
 Grand Rapids, Mich., mission in, 
 223 
 
 Grennan, Brother, 123 
 
 Griffin, Mrs. John, 290 
 
 Feehan, Archbishop, 299 
 
 Fillier, Father, 127 
 
 Fitzgerald, Garret, 157 
 
 Fitzgerald, Rev. C, 318 
 
 Fitzgerald, Thomas, 174 ; 
 Father, 299; on Damen's ill- 
 ness, 318 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Bishop, 120 
 
 Florissant, Damen arrives at, 
 20; history of, 22; Damen 
 buried at, 321 
 
 Foley, Bishop, 53, 304 
 
 Foster school, the, 137 
 
 Funds, ^ gathering, 79ft"., I04f . ; 
 criticism of, 27Sff. 
 
 Galena, mission in, 92 
 1 Galesburg, mission in, 109 
 IGallwey, Madame, 145 
 I Garesche, Father, 221, 240 
 . Garraghan, Father, describes 
 Florissant Valley, 22f. ; on 
 history of Chicago, 57; de- 
 scribes dedication of Holy 
 Family Church, i2of. ; on mis- 
 sions^ 213; on Damen and 
 Smarius, 216, 236I 
 Garvey, Father Arnold, 287 
 Garvey, John, 286I, 321 
 Georgetown, mission at, 237 
 German emigrants form neigh- 
 boring parish, 1281. ; their 
 
 Heilan, Father, 221 
 
 Heilers, Brother, 87 
 
 Helias, Father, 26 
 
 Hendrickx, Adrian, 19, 26 
 
 Henni, Bishop, 120 
 
 Herbert, Mother, tells an inci- 
 dent, H3f. ; recalls a sermon 
 of Damen's, 272 
 
 Hickey, Mrs., 100 
 
 Higgins, Father, 3i3f. 
 
 Hillman, Father, 236, 271 ; rem- 
 iniscence of Damen, 291I, 309 
 
 Hoecken, Father, 2of. 
 
 Holland and its people, 6ff. 
 
 Holy Communion, remarkable 
 incident of, 31 of. 
 
 Holy Family parish, Chicago: 
 first church, 75; first school, 
 76 ; the permanent church, 78 ; 
 devotions, 90, 04; the people, 
 98ff., 127; dedication of the 
 church, 120 ; reorganization 
 of, 122; closing exercises of 
 schools, I57f. ; picnics, i6of. ; 
 vocations from, 174; saved 
 from Chicago fire, 178 ; build- 
 ing the tower, 286ff. ; Da- 
 men's golden jubilee at, 299 
 
 Holy Innocents', N. Y., mission 
 at, 234 
 
 Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, 
 mission in, 5 iff. 
 
 Horse and buggy, auction of, 
 io6f. 
 
326 
 
 Index 
 
 Houlihan, Jerry, i6if. 
 Hughes, Father Thomas, writes 
 
 on Damen's mission, 243f. 
 Humor, his, U4ff. 
 Hutton, Brother, 87 
 
 Images, worship of, his answer 
 to this question, 267ft". 
 
 Immaculate Heart of Mary, de- 
 votion to, 43 
 
 Impostors, his dealing with, 112 
 
 Indian missions, 26ff. 
 
 Indianapolis, mission in, 129 
 
 Jersey City, missions in, 223, 
 
 235 
 Johnson, Joseph, 157 
 Joseph, Mother Mary, 159 
 Juncker, Bishop, 120 
 
 Keefe, John, 157 
 
 Keller, Father, 164L, 168; crit- 
 icizes Damen and Smarius, 
 276 
 
 Kelly, John, 178 
 
 Kelly, Mr., U4ff. 
 
 Kelly, S.J., Brother Thomas, 
 
 25 
 Kennedy, John, 174 
 Kenrick, Archbishop, 120 
 Kickapoos, 29 
 Knisely, Mrs., 117 
 Koenig, Father, 219 
 Koopmans, Father, 236 
 
 Lacrosse, Wis., mission in, 223 
 Lake Forest, college at, 147 
 Lalumiere, Father, 299 
 Laurent, Father P., 151 
 Lawler, Father, 185 
 Lay teachers, I55f. 
 Leahy, David, 157 
 Leavenworth, mission at, 232 
 
 Lectures, to non-Catholics, 211; 
 post-mission, criticism of, 
 
 275ff. 
 
 Lefevre, Bishop, 120; on Da- 
 men's mission, 193 
 
 Lesperance, John, appreciation 
 of Smarius, 214! 
 
 Leur, I2ff. 
 
 Lichfield, mission at, 237 
 
 Loan, negotiating^ a, i69ff. 
 
 London, Can., mission in, 223 
 
 Longstreet, General, 237 
 
 Loretan, Father, 44 
 
 Louisville, Ky., mission in, 223 ; 
 retreat to clergy in, 225 
 
 Luers, Bishop, 120 
 
 Lynn, Mass., mission at, 237 
 
 Maes, Father Ignatius, 91 
 Marquette, memorial to, 57; at 
 site of Holy Family Church, 
 
 Marshall, Mich., mission in, 223 
 Martin, Mr. and Mrs., 100 
 Masselis, Father, 51, 236 
 Mazuchelli, O. P., Father, 197 
 Mearns, Father, 221 
 Mehan settlement, mission in, 
 
 95 
 
 Miege, Bishop, 200 
 
 Milwaukee, retreat to priests of, 
 226 
 
 Missions, 51, 9iff., 1721. ; work 
 of, 192ft. ; his method on, 
 2o8ff., 248 ff. ; various, 232ft. ; 
 daily routine of, 24off. 
 
 Missouri, Church in, in 1839, 
 28 
 
 Mobile, mission at, 237 
 
 Morris, 111., mission at, 237 
 
 Murphy, Bishop, gives reminis- 
 cences of Damen, i84ff. ; 264, 
 298 
 
 Murphy, Father, letter of, 44; 
 impressed by Damen, 45; on 
 relief of poor, 46; on Da- 
 men's qualities, 46, 48, 304; 
 on missions, 200, 202 
 
 Murphy, Patrick, 174 
 
Index 
 
 327 
 
 Neiderkorn, Father, i3of., 236 
 Neiderkorn, Mother, 314 
 Nerinckx, Father Charles, 2of. 
 New Haven, mission in, 223 
 Newman, Cardinal, on religious 
 uses of secular knowledge, 
 I95f.; on Basil and Gregory, 
 
 303 . , 
 
 New Orleans, mission at, 237 
 Newport, Ky. t mission in, 223 
 New World on escape of Holy 
 
 Family parish from Chicago 
 
 fire, 178ft. 
 New York City, missions in, 
 
 223, 233, 234U 236L 
 
 Oakley, Father Maurice, 120, 
 
 185 
 O'Connor, Patrick, 120 
 O'Hara, Bishop, 303f. 
 Oliphant, Pa., mission at, 237 
 Omaha, mission at, 237 
 O'Malley, Mrs. Austin, tells of 
 
 cure, 292f. 
 O'Meara, Father James, on vo- 
 cations from Damen's schools, 
 174; on Damen and Smarius, 
 246 ; on popularity of Damen, 
 285 ; on a retreat of Damen's, 
 28of. 
 Onahan, Mr., 138, 152, 246, 299 
 O'Neil, Brother Thomas, 122, 
 
 126, 139, 155 
 O'Neil, Father Andrew, 122, 
 126, 139, I42ff., 155, 169, 185 
 O'Neil, Father Thomas, 197 
 O'Neill, Mr. Thomas, 100, 104 
 O'Neill, Mrs. Thomas, I04f. 
 O'Neill's Woods, 104, 183 
 O'Regan, Bishop, invites Da- 
 men to give mission, 51 ; Da- 
 men and irreverence of people 
 toward, 53; invites Damen to 
 start parish, 61; letter, 62; 
 reply of, 63; asks Damen to 
 bring in Religious of Sacred 
 Heart, 144 
 
 O'Reilly, Father, 233 
 Organization, his method of, 
 
 40 ff., 122 
 Orphans, children's reception to, 
 
 159 
 Ottawa, Can., mission in, 223 
 
 Parsons, Kansas, mission at, 237 
 Pawnees, 27 
 
 Pensacola, mission at, 237 
 Peoria, mission in, 92 
 Personality of Damen, 263I 
 Philadelphia, missions in, 223, 
 
 235, 237 
 Picnics, Holy Family, i6of., 
 
 l82f. 
 
 Pierce, John, 157 
 
 Pleasant Valley, Pa., mission 
 
 at, 237 
 Points of Controversy, 215 
 Ponziglione, Father, 197 
 Poor, care for, 45I, 11 iff. 
 Pottawatomies, 26f. 
 Prairie, the, 68ff. 
 Prairie du Chien, Wis., mission 
 
 in, 223 
 Preaching, 37, 48ff. 
 Precis Historique on mission 
 
 in New York City, 233 
 Provincial, letters to, 129 
 Pueblo, mission at, 237 
 Purcell, Archbishop, 193, 201 
 Putten, Father, 236 
 
 Quarter, Bishop, 165 
 Quigley Preparatory Seminary, 
 165 
 
 Rappe, Bishop, 220 
 Redemptorist Fathers, 197 
 Retreats, 43, 218, 225f. 
 Richard, Father, 27 
 Rochelle, 111., mission at, 237 
 Rockaway, L. I., mission at, 237 
 
328 
 
 Rockford, mission in, 92 
 Roothaan, Father, 34, 200 
 
 Index 
 
 Sacred Heart Church, 181 ; Da- 
 men as Superior of, 297 
 Sacred Heart, Religious of, 127, 
 
 144, 218 
 St. Agnes' School, 153 
 St. Aloysius' School, 151 
 St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, 195 
 St. Charles Borromeo's, Phila- 
 delphia, mission at, 235 
 St. Cyr, Father, on early Chi- 
 cago, 57, 60 
 St. Francis', Boston, mission at, 
 
 235 
 
 St. Francis of Assisi parish, 131 
 
 St. Francis Regis, 307 
 
 St. Francis Xavier, 194, 200, 
 23of., 246 
 
 St. Francis Xavier's Church, N. 
 Y. C, mission at, 233! 
 
 St. Francis Xavier's Church, St. 
 Louis, assistant at, 378.. ; pas- 
 tor at, 40ff. 
 
 St. Gabriel's Church, N. Y., 
 mission at, 236 
 
 St. Ignatius College, 1648.; vo- 
 cations from, 174; Damen 
 President of, 284 ; Superior of 
 Missions at, 297; students 
 congratulate Damen, 313! 
 
 St. Ignatius Loyola, 194 
 
 St. Joseph's School, 153 
 
 St. Louis, cholera at, 44 
 
 St. Louis University, 42!, 289 
 
 St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, 
 165 
 
 St. Mary of the Lake, Univer- 
 sity of, 165 
 
 St. Mary's, Brooklyn, mission 
 at, 234 
 
 St. Mary's Landing, Mo., mis- 
 sion at, 237 
 
 St. Michael's, Jersey City, mis- 
 sion at, 235 
 
 St. Patrick's Cathedral, N. Y. 
 C, mission at, 235 
 
 St. Patrick's School, Chicago, 
 137 
 
 St. Peter Canisius, 195 
 
 St. Peter Claver, 195 
 
 St. Pius' School, 153 
 
 St. Stanislaus' School, 151 
 
 St. Veronica's School, 153 
 
 St. Vincent de Paul Society of 
 Holy Family parish, 100 
 
 St. Vincent's Church, Shelby 
 Co., mission at, 249 
 
 St. Vincent's, Scranton, mission 
 at, 23s 
 
 Schools, Damen's, 76, 95, 122, 
 I26f., 136ft., 1451., i 49 ff., 153, 
 170, 218, 225 ; Colonial, 135 
 
 Schulak, Father, 299 
 
 Schultz, Father, 185, 232 
 
 Scranton, Pa., mission in, 235, 
 243f. 
 
 Seminary of the Sacred Heart, 
 146 
 
 Sermons, his method in, 2646?. 
 
 Setters, Father, 144, 185 
 
 Shamokin, Pa., mission at, 237 
 
 Shea, John Gilmary, on mission 
 in New York City, 233 
 
 Sheahan, James W., writes on 
 the completion of Holy Name 
 Church, 121 
 
 Sheridan, Joseph, on Damen's 
 preaching, 271 
 
 Sheridan, Mother, on open-air 
 Benediction at Sacred Heart 
 Convent, I47f. ; on Damen's 
 preaching, 27if.; on his loy- 
 alty, 314 
 
 Sisters of Charity of the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary, 149L 
 
 Sisters of Mercy, 144 
 
 Smarius, Father Cornelius, 201, 
 203, 212; life sketch, 213ft. ; 
 Damen's estimate of, 219; 
 gives retreats, 226; and mis- 
 sions, 228, 231 ; at Cincinnati 
 Cathedral mission, 232 ; death, 
 
Index 
 
 329 
 
 243; compared with Damen, 
 245 ff. ; Damen' s defense of, 
 
 313 
 
 Smyth, Bishop, 120 
 
 Society of Jesus, ideal of, I94f. 
 
 Sodality, Young Men's, St. 
 Francis Xavier's Church, 42, 
 47; Holy Family Church, 122 
 
 Spalding, Archbishop, on Cath- 
 olic School system, 135 
 
 Spiritual Exercises of St. Igna- 
 tius, 43; a missionary work, 
 194I, 207 
 
 Stafford, John, 157 
 
 Strength, his, 188 
 
 Study in the time of Damen, 
 140I 
 
 Sunday School Association, 142 
 
 Superior, as a, I22ff. 
 
 Sycamore, 111., mission in, 223 
 
 Sylvester, Sister M., 291 
 
 Tarbell, Ida, on Chicago in 
 
 i860, 55f. 
 Teacher, as a, 32 ff. 
 Temperance, a strong advocate 
 
 of, 116 
 Temperance Society of Holy 
 
 Family parish, 106 
 Timon, Bishop, 120 
 Toledo, recommends church and 
 
 college in, 221; mission in, 
 
 223 
 Toronto, Can., mission in, 223 
 Travels of an early missioner, 
 
 io8f. 
 Troy, mission at, 237 
 Truyens, Father Charles, 71, 
 
 91, 95 
 Tschieder, Father, 216, 218, 299 
 Turk, arrayed as a, i88f. 
 Turnhout, 15! 
 
 Van de Velde, Bishop, praises 
 St. Francis Xavier's parish, 
 
 45 
 Van Goch, Father, 169, 171, 224, 
 
 236 
 Van Hulst, Father, 299 
 Verdin, Father, on St. Francis 
 
 Xavier's parish, 45 
 Verhaegan, Father, letter of, 34 
 Verreydt, Father, 26f . 
 Vincennes, retreat to priests of, 
 
 226 
 Vocations from Holy Family 
 
 parish, 174 
 Vows, his private, 48, 178, 308 
 
 w 
 
 Wallace, Father Thomas, gives 
 reminiscences of Father Da- 
 men, inff., 291 
 
 Wallace, Father William, on 
 Damen's return from mis- 
 sions, 285f . ; on Damen's piety, 
 306; on his last illness, 319 
 
 Waukegan, 111., mission in, 223 
 
 Weninger, Father, 134, 197, 200, 
 202, 204, 217 
 
 Whelan, Bishop, 120 
 
 Wippern, Father, on St. Fran- 
 cis Xavier's parish, 45 
 
 Wisner, Louis, 88 
 
 Woodstock Letters on Chicago 
 fire, 177, 180; on missionary 
 life, 24off. 
 
 Ysvogels, Father, 2gi. 
 
 z 
 Zeal for souls, 38!, 44 
 
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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 B.D157C C001 
 
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