For 25 years, except for two brief periods, my father Louis R. Warfel was the Sexton at St. Michael's Church. I spent may happy hours there with him doing little chores.

I have cherished the memory of those times throughout my life.

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OF CATHOLICISM

By

THE RIGHT REV. MONSIGNORE PETER GUILDAY

S. Hist. D. (Louvain), LL.D., Litt.D., J.U.D.

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life. His scholarship is known to the Catholic clergy of the entire nation by reason of his translation of the monumental Canon Law, by the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, the most Reverend Archbishop Amleto Giovanni Cicognani. This translation Doctor O'Hara made in cooperation with the Right Rev. Monsignor Francis Brennan, D.D., J.C.D., of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, now the first American member of the Sacred Roman Rota, in Rome.

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This book contains the heritage of the past which is now placed in our hands for information and spiritual edification. It should be in every Catholic home in the City of Chester. To Doctor O'Hara we extend our heartfelt congratulations on a task well done

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author here records his debt to His Excellency, the Most Reverend Bishop Lamb, for valuable suggestions and information; to the Right Reverend Monsignor Peter Guilday, S. Hist. D. (Louvain), LL.D., Litt.D., J.U.D., who read the manuscript and from his vast erudition made suggestions and corrections and who graciously wrote the Foreword; to the Reverend Dr. Joseph A. Ward, Librarian at our great diocesan Seminary at Overbrook, who read the entire manuscript and prepared a list of suggestions and corrections, and whose knowledge of sources was of inestimable value; to the Reverend Thomas F. Roland, O.S.A., Archivist at Villanova College, who compiled an account of the Very Rev. Dr. Moriarty, O.S.A.; to the Reverend Francis X. Doherty, C.M., for brief Latin accounts of members of the Congregation of the Mission who labored here; to the Reverend James A. V. Buckley, S.J., Vice-Principal of St. Joseph's College High School, Philadelphia, for an account of Father Sourin's later years after he had

entered the Society of Jesus; to the many of our Diocesan priests who sent the author accounts of various happenings here and even journeyed to this Rectory for discussion; to the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus who sent an account of their first teachers who took charge of St. Michael's School (1881); to the Sisters of St. Joseph who furnished a list of their Sisters who taught in the School, beginning in 1913; to the Officials of the Chester Times who graciously gave the author access to their century old newspaper files; to the librarians of the research department of the Philadelphia Library at Nineteenth and Wood Streets.

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All of us are making history because all of us have part in events of greater or less importance. How many of us are recording history? Very few, I think. The age of diary-keeping and of scrapbooks seems to have passed and we do not encounter many annalists or archivists or incunabulists.

As a late President of the American Catholic Historical Society said: "What mounds of obIivion are not men allowing to gather over, and deeply bury from us, the names and deeds of those who bore the burden of the early days and the heats in this now prosperous and happy land of ours! Surely, it is easier to rescue these records now, even at the expenditure of some trouble and outlay, than to trust to an uncertain future. If gratitude fail us, at least let economy make us jealous guardians of the treasure of heroism and faithfulness which the past has left us. For, after all, no one is sufficient to himself. We need the help of others; and, for a fact, we are debtors all, individuals and nations, to those who have gone before. Traditional power, whether moral or physical, is a great inheritance; and the example of noble deeds, and of faithful service to God and to one's fellow-man, nerve and encourage even the strong and the brave.

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And so in preparation for the centennial of Saint Michael's Parish the following pages have been gotten together. The facts therein contained are widely scattered in various books, publications and other monuments. It is hoped that this little volume will give something of permanence to past good deeds or be an inspiration to some one of more leisure and skill to write a larger history.

The book is written primarily for the faithful of this parish as a thank offering for present and past cooperation and as a memorial of days that are forever gone.

The history of a parish deals of necessity with such things as the acquiring of ground, the erecting of buildings (church and school and convent and rectory) and the repairing and restoring and remodeling of these buildings as the years go on. Perhaps too much stress has been placed on such matters in many parish histories.

Of more importance, such histories treat of the personality of those administering religion, the various pastors and assistant pastors. Necessarily, however, the greatest and best portion of church history is, at least on earth, largely unknown

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because it deals with immortal souls and the influence of God's grace upon them. Such things are hidden in the mind of God and, indeed, can be fully understood only by Him.

that to each parish be assigned its own pastor who by reason of his office would be bound to care for that portion of the flock entrusted to him, with fixed boundaries, under the Bishop or Ordinary of the whole diocese." 2 (Author's translation.)

Indeed the organic law of Christ's Church treats specifically and in detail of parishes and pastors. For instance: "The territory of every diocese shall be divided into distinct territorial parts; and to every part shall be assigned its own church with specified people; and over it shall be placed its own rector, as its proper pastor, for the necessary care of souis." (3)

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Father the Pope, the Vicar of Christ on earth. Thus in due order and harmony is the whole Church united to its Divine Head in heaven, Jesus Christ.

Saint Michael's parish, like every other parish, began with Episcopal sanction and blessing and under very definite regulations. Its pastors and assistant pastors have not been elected by the people but are appointed by the supreme authority of the diocese which alone avails thus to appoint or to remove, in accordance with the sacred canons.

The more clearly to accomplish the purpose of this book it has been deemed suitable to give brief biographical sketches of the illustrious John Carroll, first Bishop of this territory, and whose Jesuit confreres labored here so zealously and so successfully; of the intellectually gigantic Bishop Kenrick, who gave permission for the parish; of Father Sheridan who was first pastor; of Father Sourin and the famous Dr. Moriarty, O.S.A., both of whom preached at the dedication ceremonies; of Dr. Win. O'Hara who first baptized in St. Michael's church; of the pastors, Fathers Haviland, James Timmins, Joseph Timmins, Edward Curran and the

present incumbent. Nor have the early assistants before Father Haviland been neglected. Indeed a complete list of all the priests who served here and their dates of coming and leaving will be found in Chapter XVIII.

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